Fitting new hammers to the Brinsmead action. Very unusually, this piano has mahogany shanks – most piano makers use hornbeam for this part.

I’m assuming Brinsmead decided to use mahogany as it’s a little lighter than hornbeam, and would result in an action that responds slightly better to being played quietly – however, it certainly isn’t as robust. (I also noted there is a lot of mahogany in the rest of the piano too, so it could simply be that Brinsmead was making use of the materials he had to hand!)

A fine game played slowly….! The screw thread tuning system (known on upright pianos as a “top tuner” – because the threads point straight up) is very stable, but rather tricky to work with at the stringing stage.

Also note the newly capped treble bridge.

The name and number of my current piano (Circa. 1880), stamped into the area where a wrest plank would normally live. This piano hasn’t got a traditional wrest (tuning) plank – it uses a threaded tensioning system…