Post #17 - The Stool

Every piano needs a seat - bench or stool.  When we bought this piano, it came with neither - so of course, within a day of getting the piano home, we were out at the local antique stores looking for a stool.

Not a bench - too plain.  A stool.  Think "Pretty Baby" (the movie) bordello scenes....

Now, you can't see what The Professor is sitting on in this picture, but you have to know it's not a plain bench.  It's a stool.  It has to be...  And so that's what we had to have.  Actually, we might need that lamp as well.

We found it, rather more easily than I expected.  It wasn't in great condition - the glass balls in the claw feet were cracked and busted - but it worked and it was stable and it was old.  And it didn't break the bank.

You've seen this stool in various pictures of the piano, but to refresh your memory - this is it.

Unfortunately, this is the best picture I have of the stool in its original (assembled) state.  To be honest, I wasn't really thinking of including it in the blog until it turned into a secondary project.

The first thing that had to be fixed were the balls in the claw feet.  All four crystal/glass/whatever balls were cracked, broken, and ragged - no way they could be put unprotected on the wood floor.

So the search began for 1 1/4" glass balls to replace the broken ones.  In the event that you ever need to find glass or crystal balls of this size, here's some advice - give up now, unless you know something I don't know.  Web searches, hobby store searches, hardware store searches, absolutely nothing (unless you're willing to pay for custom, and we weren't).  And, even if you do find the correct size, I've been told by professionals - and I heartily believe it at this point - getting the balls into the claws in almost an absolute impossibility.

But before you can get anything into the claws, you have to get the existing ball fragment out of the claws.  That took a hammer and a lot of shattering glass/crystal/whatever.  And that should have been instructional to me to begin with...  But, no, I was convinced that I could bend the claws, get the new balls in - when I found them - and then bend the claws back.  We wanted original hardware wherever possible.

I got the fragments out, but then hit the wall - no replacements.  And professional advice that even if I could find replacements, there was no way to get them back in without ruining them.

A trip to Michael's gave us a temporary solution...  Wooden 1 1/4" balls.  Not exactly as elegant as crystal/glass - but it worked.  And, because they were wood, I could get them into the claws without shattering or scratching them (badly).

Of course, I immediately got commentary about putting plain, unpainted, un-anythinged wooden balls into the claws.  But, I figured, if this turns out to be the final solution, a) I can take them out, finish them, and put them back or b) I have spares and I know where I can get more.

So the wooden balls stayed for a period of several months, until I started working on the piano legs.  Once the legs were finished - and I'm loathe to start working on the piano case until I get the interior workings figured out - the stool kind of stood out like a sore thumb.

We knew we wanted that bordello, extravagant look for the stool, so a trip to Hobby Lobby scored some fringe and baubles (and furniture tacks).  Then it was simply getting the stool in shape for it's bordello-fication.

And that's when this turned from a quick, easy upgrade to a week worth of hard labor.  Not what I expected.

The stool seat, pretty much the only part we really paid attention to, was clean and in good shape.  The screw rod that held it to base worked, was solid, and seemed stable.

The unpleasant surprise was when I looked at the base.  Quite obviously, the lower part of this stool had seen some hard times, and that didn't include the glass/crystal/whatever busted balls in the claws.  On close inspection, the base of this thing looked like it had been immersed in some kind of oily substance and the left to dry and molder for 20 or 30 years.  I kid you not.

This was a little more than nasty.  To this day, I wonder it the upper stool seat really belongs to the stool base.  Or if the oily water this had to soak in for several months only got two feet high.

Out came my new best friend, Liquid Gold, that had cleaned a whole bunch of wood products in our house over the past couple of weeks.  Surely, this would cut through the crud on this thing.

Not a chance.  It made a slight difference, but not anything I'd be willing to touch with my bare hands (I was wearing gloves when I started this particular project, but there were no gloves involved in getting the thing home).

Next came Murphy's Oil Soap.  That made a little more difference, but there was still an (un)healthy layer of crud on the base.

I decided to be a little unconventional at this point and tried Howard's Restor-A-Finish.  I originally bought this to use on the bad spots on the piano case, but if it would take this gunk off with no stripper, it was worth a shot.

Another semi-wasted effort...  It certainly made the crud shiny, but it didn't take much of it off.

So, back to the hardware store - actually Home Depot this time, I like to be an equal opportunity shopper - and a can of finish stripper. This was my choice of last resort, but it was the last choice I had.

After two hours of hard labor with the stripper and steel wool, I got most of the gunk off.  Not all, but without totally disassembling the whole structure and soaking the components in stripper solution, I was satisfied.

Now for the bordello-fication.  First the seat fringe...  This was harder than I thought it would be - and who would have ever thought that a piano stool seat is almost 4 feet in circumference.  Victoria would not believe me and measured it herself.  But we needed about 45" of fringe and 46 upholstery tacks (not including the ones I bent) to completely go around the stool.

Next came the baubles, around the de-crudified stool base top.  This only took 3 feet of baubles, but it wasn't all that much easier to get it in place and even all the way around.  Out of the 96 upholstery tack we bought, I should have used about 70 all total.  I was left with about 6 when I was done.

The finishing touch was the claw feet.  The NEW claw feet.  I finally gave into conventional wisdom and realized that I would not find 1 1/4" glass balls and that, even if I did, I would never get them into the old claw feet without breaking them or damaging them beyond repair.  Add the fact that the original hardware is cast iron, not bronze, and all the piano bangles, including the front casters - which look great - are bronze, not cast iron.  Not a good match.

Back to the web...  First stop, Google.  Second stop, eBay via Google.  Do you know how much they want for vintage claw feet?  Most of them are cast iron and most come in sets of three...  And all of them were way more than I wanted to pay, especially in bronze.

Back to Google.  Next stop, Etsy.  And, bingo!  A picture of three bronze claw feet for sale and - bonus - $15!  There's a deal that's too good to be true.  Several clicks later, the order was placed and within 30 minutes, notification that they had shipped and it would be a couple of days before they arrived.

I think it was either the day before I expected them to arrive - or possibly the actual day - that my subconscious mind informed my conscious mind that there were actually four legs to this stool.  Four legs = four feet.  And I ordered three...  My good mood and sense of getting a good deal just vanished.

Still...  I can always find another bronze claw and, if they didn't completely match, well, no one would look that hard and notice.  If I could get it past Victoria, it would get past anyone.

Then the package arrived.  Ripped open to reveal - ONE claw.  One claw???  I ordered three.  Invoice said 1 claw, $15.  Back to the Etsy site - three available, order separately, $15 apiece.  I need to read things more carefully and not be harpooned by a price that's too good to be true.  I do this all the time.

Back to Google, and screw the vintage stuff.  I want bronze, I want four, and I want as cheap as I can find.  Third try was the charm - Kennedy Hardware.  Four brand-spanking new bronze claw feet (with two screws even, in case you need a longer one) and unbroken glass feet.  $10 a pop.  Done.

Last step was assembly of the feet and the rest of the stool.  Of course, the feet didn't fit onto the leg stumps, so the stumps needed to be ground down - by hand - so that they were properly tapered to fit the feet.  Then drill some new holes, select the appropriate screw out of the two provided, and we have legs with feet.

Two wobbly legs needed to be corrected as well before the seat went back on.  A little drilling and a couple of screws through the base into the legs and no more wobble.

Finally, reattach the stool seat and step back to get the full effect...