Andy Holder

Hi Geoff. It wasn't a wind up. I asked for a sample because I'm in a similar state of learning and I'm afraid it doesn't encourage me to listen to Noel Hill or JK. I haven't got that many years to practice! It's much more use to me to think "hey I might manage that". p.s. sad to see Seafrance have gone. That means the fares will certainly go up! Andy

The late Pierre Hooft used to do exactly that to make his thumbscrews, though he would file off the relief design. He was just using the coin as stock. If you have the thing on a lathe to knurl it, why not just chuck a piece of 1/2" brass rod and make the screw in one piece? It takes less than 10 minutes per screw. Chris You're right Chris, but I didn't have a 6BA die! Just had the taps. Also, I'm not sure how easy it is to cut a thread right up to the shoulder. Is that the way you do it? You would definitely need a live tailstock in place when it started to get very thin.

If anyone could tell us, it would probably be concertina.net member allan atlas. But there's also the question of whether they (or their audiences) would consider it a "sacrifice". Not only do different people have different tastes, very often the same person has different tastes, depending on the context. I know I do. I don't think it strange that someone might prefer a more intimate sound in a more intimate setting and a "stronger" sound in a concert hall performance. Or different sounds for different kinds of music. Alistair Anderson, e.g., seems to perform mainly on a metal-ended instrument, but for certain pieces he regularly uses an amboyna Aeola. I have finally gone for very very thin quarter sawn Spruce. 1.5mm. I believe there is a definite improvement in the tone, with hardly any loss in volume. It sounds lovely. Andy.

Thanks Tony. I'd be very interested in any chord charts you come up with. I'm just about ready to give my Maccann a go but having looked at the blank fingering chart I can't even understand how you would do a scale in the key of C. Andy

I love the photo. Size comparison leaves me wondering whether you could use the 5p coin as a screw head. Then you wouldn't have to worry about knurling, though avoiding damage to the coin's surface relief would surely be a much more difficult task. Thank you Jim. Could make a range of "novelty screws" I suppose! Otherwise, I'm not sure how you'd flatten the face. Oh, and of course, I think it is treason to deface a coin of the realm, mind you, they probably have excellent facilities in the prison workshop Andrew

Hi Michael. Thanks for that. I just use a plumbing blowlamp with propane. With something this small it doesn't take long to heat it to a dull cherry red. A small nozzle helps. I'm afraid a lathe is probably a must for the knurling, unless you were to go round the edge and cut tiny slots with a Dremel. The knurling tool I use is a very cheap thing, not terribly good actually, but it is a couple of wheels on a sort of scissor mount that just clamps into the tool post. Just like this one: Here Andy

Thanks Steve.

Tony, any chance of a "just started" recording, then we can see how you progress and it may be an inspiration to people like me who feel a bit lost. Andy.

I recall a recent discussion about making screws for straps. Here's my first attempt (well actually, the second, the first one exploded!) I needed extra long threads as the first thumbstraps I've made are a bit thick and normal screws won't reach. I got some lovely brass cheese head screws from ebay with a 6BA thread. Here are the bolts The heads are very sharply cylindrical so my first thought was to drill a blind, flat bottomed hole with a milling cutter and set the heads in very tightly, then silver solder. BAD MISTAKE! The watery flux paste must have created steam and, because it was such a tight fit, it took a little heating with the torch before it exploded loudly and shot the red-hot head across the workshop like a bullet! Pretty stupid idea really. Then I thought that the blind hole idea was an unnecessary complication if I wanted to make more, just for the sake of a clean top. In practice, a through hole is barely noticeable. Consider the difficulties. I wanted to end up with 3 mm thick heads. There is no way of holding this in the average lathe chuck to do the faces. Also, how on earth could I do the knurling round the edge? You can't hold it by the screw because the knurling tool applies so much sideways force. Here are the steps I did, there may well be a better way but this seemed to work quite well with a low-tech hobbyists lathe. 1. Put a short piece (2") of 3/4" brass rod in the chuck. 2. Knurl the last 1/4" of it 3. Face the end and bevel the corner 4. Drill into the end about 1/4" deep 5. Hacksaw a little more than the required thickness off. This is the head! 6. Tap the hole (6BA in my case) 7. Saw the head off the bolt and coat the end of it and the threaded hole with flux. 8. Screw it into the head so it just protrudes through the rough side. The smooth side is now the underneath of the head. 9. Hold the end of the screw in the chuck or a vice, not too much, don't want a heat sink 10. Heat with a gas torch until cherry red, then apply silver solder sparingly to both sides of the joint 11. When cool, push the screw right into the chuck and tighten 12. Very carefully, in small passes, face off the end and bevel the corner.(There's a lot of pressure on that bolt!) 13. Take off protective clothing, ear defenders, safety goggles and have a stiff drink! I then polished the head with various grades of lapping film (in my other life I polish optical connectors) I use 40 micron then 15, then 5, then 1. It's available from Workshop Heaven. They are obviously still much too long, I need to trim them, but I think they're good enough for the Wheatstone. Hope you like the result. Did you see how I used the old fashioned measurements for our American cousins? Andy

Larry, same question, do you know what thickness the spruce was? Cheers Andy

Chris, do you know what thickness the spruce was? I think I will try it. I've fitted paper ones but I think that's a bit of a compromise. Andy.

I must say Red does look good. Andy

Very nice Chris, Sadly, I'm in the UK so can't get from them. However, there are a couple of suppliers of 100% wool felt over here. Andy

As I recall the leather was like parchment... perhaps Goat or Sheep... and it is possible that the stiffness, or some of it,came with age ?? You could probably use a stiff Paper like that used by Watercolourists. Geoff. That would be good, perhaps a slightly grainy hand made paper.

Still not sure. D'you know what they did to the leather to make it a stiff as a board?

Hi Geoff. Just taking a breather from replacing some bushings and read your note. I'm replacing the black bushings on a metal button rosewood ended Wheatstone EC with scarlet felt. What are your feelings about colours? Should Anglos be done in an emerald green, for instance? Is there a protocol that I don't know about? Personally I would love mid blue but I've never seen one. Andy.

Ha, I love it Geoff. Although you need to rob a bank to buy many of the latest crop of instruments! I don't want to mask the sound, however, I'm not a great fan of being able to see the internals so maybe I'll re-instate some thin gauze type stuff and see what it does. Thanks all. Andy

Hi there. I'm fixing up a Wheatstone English which I think may have had baffles in when made, the raised fixing pads are there. There's no trace of any now so, should I reinstate them and, if so, what is the best material for baffles? I haven't had chance to compare with and without, how much difference does it make to the sound quality and were they there mainly for the appearance or the acoustics? Thanks, Andy

Chris, as an aside. I have just found your treatise on various actions on your website. What an astonishing and helpful piece of work. Thank you for putting in what must have been a significant amount of effort. I have identified my Wheatstone as a type 8. Amazing! Cheers Andy.

Thanks Steve for the compliment. Varney, I really didn't have much of a clue about ratios. I got the idea from here: Piano finishing I'm guessing this but it was probably half a tablespoon of plaster of paris, half a teaspoon of burnt umber and a pinch of alizarin crimson. The pigments are Winsor & Newton dry ground artists pigments Sold here. Mixed up well then the rubber (like the polishing rubber, cotton wool in a cotton wad) is wet and wrung out very well and dabbed into it. If its too wet then just dab it in again until its a firm paste on the surface. Good luck if you try it. I'd like to know the result. I may have just been lucky.

Hi Michael. I stripped it fairly harshly with I think 180 grit on a random orbital sander first to get back to bare wood, then I used 600 grit and then 1200 grit wet 'n dry (used dry and then washed for re-use). Button polish is a fairly widely available french polish with a little bit of colouring. There's also white french polish which is clear. If you google button polish there are lots of suppliers. It dries in seconds, so you have to apply very thin coats quickly. Also, it's a good idea to do a search for french polishing. There are lots of articles and some are extremely complicated. I only do the simple bits and leave out the time consuming stuff. It's fine using oil and sweeping across a table top in a figure of eight, but it doesn't really work with a small bit of pierced wood! The important thing is to use a Fad or Rubber (a wad of cotton wool tightly gathered in a bit of good cotton. Put the button polish into the cotton wool, never dip the rubber into it. Then you can squeeze it through to the surface and apply it very thinly. You just have to be a bit careful not to overload the fretwork edges and get drips. After you've built up 10 or 12 very thin coats over 3 or 4 sessions, leave it overnight. The burnishing cream (Liberon make a good one) is very slightly abrasive and cuts back the surface to a high gloss. I believe it is just T-Cut for cars, in a more expensive bottle, it smells exactly the same! Please feel free to PM me if you want any more info. Cheers Andy

Thank you Michael. I have been having trouble with posting pictures. I'll have another go later but in the meantime I'll try just putting the links in again.

Thanks for all the help with my previous query about grain filling. I've had another go and here are the results. This was the concertina straight from eBay. Firstly I took the old polish off with a mixture of methylated spirits and sanding. Then I mixed plaster of paris with brown umber and red powder pigment, then dabbed a slightly damp ball of lint free cloth into it and rubbed it into the grain. When it's dry you wish you hadn't even started this approach! Then, after sanding it begins to look a bit more hopeful. 2 coats of spirit based sanding sealer and a rub down. 2 sessions of 3-4 coats of button polish, Dry overnight and a final rub with burnishing cream. The photo really doesn't do it justice, it looks even more lovely in the flesh! Cheers Andy

Thanks for all your help Steve, I've had another go with plaster of paris and posted the results. It's all from an article I found here. http://pianomaker.co.uk/technical/filling/ Cheers Andy

Flickr works if you use the .jpg address, not the address of the page. I right-clicked on the 640-sized image, and pasted it here: Then, for even more convenience, I clicked on the "insert link" icon (looks like a chain, just to the right of the happy yellow face) while the text for the image was still highlighted, and pasted in the URL that you originally posted for the image (its flickr page). That means if anyone clicks on the image above, they can see the picture on flickr in different sizes or whatnot. Excellent, thanks for all the help. Andy