Kirkman Piano History and repair

[pianosmyth]

Hi everyone,

About a year ago I decided I wanted to start playing piano but couldn't afford to buy a piano. My sister was doing some work on a house in Dublin that had an old piano they never used. It was old from the look of it and reasonably functional and fortunately my parents provided me space to house the piano.

I had never heard of the maker before. Its a Kirkman and was made in 3 Soho Square. From what I could find it must have been made around 1850. I would love to hear if anyone knows anything about the history of this maker.

The second part is that I wish to perform some repairs myself on it as the technicians I've asked say it would too cost prohibitive to repair. One reason I was given is that the dampening system is the opposite of the norm nowadays (under/over dampers). I would like to try repair it to a reasonable playing condition and am looking for information of where to start.

Problems include uneven key weights, felts and dampers worn and some repair needed on some of the dampening mechanism themselves.

Thanks,

Ferg

[allthumbs]

Check out this site...

https://www.piano-tuners.org/history/kirkman/index.html

[john90]

I can't help with history. With repair: Give the thing a good clean inside. Don't use oil on anything. Photograph it from many angles in good light, as it is when hoovered out, with the panels and keyboard covers off. Take the action out, photograph more, and the action, and areas with problems. Stick all the pics in a Picassaweb or similar album and post a link. Lots of pictures please.

Pleased to hear that you have found this. Sounds much more fun than anything electric!

[richard black]

That's a historic piano! Not necessarily in the sense that it's worth a fortune - it's probably worth little financially - but certainly n the sense that they don't make 'em like that any more. Ideally you'd want a real specialist to take a look at it. There are a few firms around that specialise in pianos of that era - if you can't find any more concrete details, you could do worse than contact someone at Finchcocks piano museum (Goudhurst, Kent, UK) and ask them nicely.

[pianosmyth]

Ya I didn't think I would be making much of a profit on it. But while it isn't in a very playable condition because of the key weights, pedal and damper problems I'm amazed at the physical condition. It was taken from a house that was currently under major reconstruction covered in dust. It hadn't been played by the previous two generations of the family that owned it and thus not maintained but when I started to play it, it was surprisingly not very much out of tune. Yes I may need to find a specialist but from what the technician I talked to told me the price may not make it worth while.

Unfortunately this was the piano I was practicing on before I moved so I still need to pick up that electric. I will upload photos when I am home again to take it apart and give it a clean. Hopefully shouldn't need too much as it was one of the first things I'd did when I got it to see how they worked.