One Man`s Trash… - The American Chestnut Foundation

TACF MEMBERS’ STORIES
One
Man’s
Trash…
By Jon Taylor
By the time TACF’s Annual Chestnut Summit
had come and gone in Asheville last October,
I found myself in a predicament I hadn’t been
in for years: I was completely out of usable
chestnut lumber. My last purchase the year
before included only one board but it was a
BIG board, some four inches thick, thirteen
inches wide and sixteen feet long. With the
last five feet of that board I was able to make
all thirteen frames that TACF needed for their The piano, built in New York City in 1915 was abandoned by the roadside
annual awards. But then I was out, with no when Jon found it. Photo: Jon Taylor
idea where to find more good, dry chestnut
lumber.
it was not considered a beautiful wood, as it is today,
and so it was veneered with more popular species like
Just a week later, however, fate intervened. My wife cherry and mahogany.
and I were driving to a grocery store located right next
to the Crowne Plaza where the Summit had been held. One of my favorite aspects of woodworking is learning
As we drove under the highway overpass I noticed an about the history that goes along with the material.
old upright piano lying on its back. I immediately Most of the time when you purchase lumber from a
thought of my friend, fellow woodworker and chestnut lumber yard the most you might know is the country
enthusiast, Don Surrette, who told me that old pianos it came from and a rough estimate of the tree’s age
often contain chestnut lumber. As I backed up to it, I when it was cut down. Chestnut is different as there is
noticed the previous owner had stripped off the keys almost always a good story attached to it.
and a few other parts that must have seemed valuable
and then dumped it under the bridge. Without any The large cast-iron plate inside the piano was inscribed
tools, I tore off the lid and returned home with our with the name S.G. Lindeman, Melodigrand of New
groceries. A few passes through the planer removed York, Inc. and the serial number 63185. My initial internet
the veneer, leaving a substantial and solid piece of search gave me only a rough estimate of the piano’s
age so I ordered a copy of the 12th edition of the Pierce
American chestnut.
Piano Atlas. From that I learned that the Lindeman
I returned with my toolbox and spent about an hour family is the second oldest piano manufacturer in
dismantling the piano and loading all the pieces into America and was established in 1836. Based on the
the back of my truck. Back at my home shop, I realized serial number, this piano had been made in a factory
that the majority of the piano was made of other woods on the corner of 140th street and 5th Avenue in New York
like oak, beech, maple and pine. The two large side City in 1919. So now I had chestnut lumber from a
panels and the lid were the only pieces that were piano that was built only six and a half miles from and
veneered chestnut lumber, but still it was a good haul. fifteen years after the chestnut blight was first discovered
on an American chestnut at the Bronx Zoo in 1904.
There are a few good reasons why chestnut lumber
was used in this application. When chestnut lumber is In addition to the different types of wood, there is a
properly dried it is extremely stable, making it perfect surprising amount and variety of metal in a piano.
for veneer core. Before the chestnut blight, the lumber Bronze foot petals, brass screws, steel tuning pins and
was readily available and very inexpensive. At the time, strings, and a one hundred and seventy pound cast iron
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T h e J o u r n a l O f T h e A m e r i c a n C h e s t n u t F o u n d at i o n
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J ANUAR Y / FE B RUAR Y 2 0 1 3
TACF MEMBERS’ STORIES
A section of a 1915 NY Yankees schedule that Jon discovered
inside the piano. Photo: Jon Taylor
digit of the year was ripped off I assumed it was for
1919, but after a few minutes on the internet I found
the dates matched the 1915 schedule.
plate were all worth twenty-two dollars at the metal
recyclers. As I removed the brass screws that attached
a piece of maple on which the keys of the piano sat, I
noticed some thin pieces of paper used to shim the
board to the right height. Among the blank white paper
was a faded New York Yankees schedule. Since the last
Through the whole process of dismantling the piano,
I kept imagining the conversations that might have
taken place on the factory floor. Did the workers talk
of the new silent killer of the chestnut trees or share
plans to take the kids to the next Yankees game? In
retrospect, I still don’t know if taking the piano apart
was worth all the labor, or what I’ll make out of that
chestnut lumber, but I’m just glad that all that great
material was saved from the landfill. And as a project,
it sure was a fun and educational history lesson.
Jon displays the chestnut planks he
salvaged from a 1913 upright piano
he found beside the highway.
Photo: Jon Taylor
w w w . ACF. o r g
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