The process...

for restoration seems straightforward at first, and one needs to have a clear plan when undertaking a project of this magnitude, but it would be foolish to expect that things will go according to the plan. The outline I've set for myself will therefore need to be flexible, and although I've laid it out in a step-by-step method, I expect that there won't always be clear separations between the steps. Some processes will need to happen simultaneously, some steps will "bleed" into each other, and there will definitely be times that I'll have to go back and fix issues that might not have arisen when I expected them to. It's only by having a flexible plan that one can go back and assess their work, adjusting and refining details to achieve the best possible results. A rigid plan would allow me the excuse of saying "once step C is done, it's done," forcing me to move on and preventing reflection on previous work. That's another reason this blog will likely help me. It will give me a structured way to analyze what I've done, which allows the opportunity to acknowledge the flaws in my processes and what can be done to refine them.


With that all being said, here's the outline of how I expect to proceed.


Step 1: Disassembly and Assessment
Disassembly might seem like an easy process. In some ways in can be one of the most fun steps. Destroying things is more fun than building them, with english horns as much as Legos, and the "organized destruction" of an instrument tear-down is one of my favorite parts of an overhaul. But it's a much more methodical process than, say, the crushing of a lego house with a pair of size 12's. First of all, disassembly is the time when parts are most likely to break or become damaged, especially if they haven't been moved in a long time. This is especially true of screws, which are almost always made of steel and therefore prone to rust. I've ruined the heads of many screws trying to extract them because I wasn't patient enough to work them out properly. On an instrument like this one, with long hinge rods and tiny shaft lock screws - which are as fine as watchmakers' screws - there are plenty of places for things to get stuck. After removal, screws need to be individually set in a screw board to insure they each go back in the right place. Complex mechanisms need to be diagrammed for reassembly, parts need to be measured, and notes need to be taken on what's missing. Fortunately, I've gotten most of the key disassembly done with no major issues. All of the screws came out with minimal coaxing, and only one pinned rod is really stuck. Next, though, I'll need to take notes on all of the pads and key corks before removing them prior to cleaning. The socket rings and liners will also need to come out for crack repair, and it may even be necessary to remove the octave key wells (which the octave pips thread into), but I really hope not.


Step 2: Cleaning
Cleaning involves three distinct processes: cleaning the wooden body, cleaning the metal keys, and cleaning the steel screws. The body will need to be cleaned by hand to remove dirt, organic material, and old oil. The keys can be cleaned in an ultrasonic machine (read more about that here) to remove surface deposits, corrosion and oil, followed by a silver dip to remove tarnish and hand-cleaning the insides of all hinge tubes and aperture holes. Screws can be polished with a fine abrasive to remove rust and buildup, and some will get a bath in WD-40 or penetrating oil.


Step 3: Body Repair
The most visible part of body repair is filling cracks and holes. This step will also involve inspection of tone hole edges to check for chips, and if necessary filling and leveling to create a smooth, consistent edge. Since the instrument will be padded with cork pads, it's imperative that the tone holes have no imperfections through with air can escape. Cork pads don't compress or deform to the shape of the tone hole rim, so even a small dip in the rim can cause a leak that will lead to problems.


If it's possible - rather, if I have access to the necessary tools - I may also use this step to replace the decorative section of the crown. The alternative to that would be filling in the chipped areas, but replacing it will create a much nicer final product.


The final step of body repair, once everything has been filled in and finished and the joints are checked for airtightness, will be to oil the body. In an instrument as dry as this one - and it will likely be dryer after more oil is removed during cleaning - the best option seems to be an immersion oiling, where each joint will soak in oil for a few days until it's soaked up as much as it needs. Oiling needs to take place last because oil in the wood can prevent glue from adhering, and gluing is a big part of crack and tone hole repair.


Step 4: Key Repair
As keys are moved up and down tens- or hundreds-of-thousands of times over the course of their lives, they inevitably wear. Any time two pieces of metal rub against each other, they will start to wear out, especially when one metal is softer than the other. In this case, the relatively soft silver in the keys is rubbing against much stronger steel in the screws. On keys held by hinge rods, the result is that the hinge tube (the part that the steel rod goes through) develops end play and lateral play. 

• End play can be seen on just about any woodwind instrument, and is visible where a key can be moved back and forth between posts. Usually the movement will be minimal, less than a millimeter, but any amount of end play can make it impossible to do precision work on an instrument.

 In this overhead diagram, the direction of end play is shown by the arrows. The gray gap between the edges of the key and the posts represents the hinge rod, which goes all the way through the key and will be visible in these gaps when end play is present

• Lateral play occurs when the diameter of the hinge tube gets enlarged by constantly rubbing against the steel rod. It's less easy to spot, but can be seen when a key can be wiggled on the rod. Lateral play is perpendicular to end play.

Even if a key is tight between the posts and has no end play, as would be the case in this diagram, there can still be lateral play.

Lateral play is dealt with by swedging, which involves carefully shrinking the diameter of the hinge tube until it's tight on the rod. As the tube is shrunk in this manner, the metal has to go somewhere, so it moves outward, making the tube longer in the process. As a result, swedging out lateral play can sometimes remove end play as well. When that isn't the case, it's sometimes necessary to attach extensions to the end of the hinge tube to take up any remaining end play.


On keys held in place by pivot screws instead of hinge rods, the process of removing play is much simpler. Since a key held on by a pivot mechanism is basically held in place by two points (the points of the screws on either end), it's just a matter of making the points of the screws snugly fit into the receivers on the ends of the key. This can be accomplished by making the screws go in further, either by modifying the screws themselves or countersinking the posts into which they thread. This takes care of both end play and lateral play.


Other parts of the key repair process involve straightening bent keys, and in this case manufacturing parts that have been damaged or removed. It'd be great to have a functional and attractive left hand F mechanism on this instrument, which means I'll have to build a new one from scratch. Other parts will have to be replaced or cleaned up to make everything functional again. That's an extensive and involved process that will get a thorough explanation later, when I actually do it.


Step 5: Padding
Once the body is prepared and the keys are fit and functional, it's finally time to do the part that most people think of as central to an overhaul - padding. This also involves installing all new key corks and tenon corks. Cork pads will be floated on a stiff, high-temperature glue that will hold them firmly level for as long as they last. The glue is not susceptible to environmental conditions such as cold or humidity, and so the precise orientation of the pads to the tone holes should ideally never change. If the tone hole edges are properly prepared and the keys are fit well, padding can actually be a somewhat quick and simple process. It's critical to have three levels when padding: a level tone hole, a level pad surface, and a level pad cup. Nowhere is this more true than when working with cork pads. Cork pads are the firmest and least forgiving pad material used on woodwind instruments. Ideally, one should also strive to have even pad protrusion - the height of each pad that's visible below its pad cup.


Step 6: Regulation
Regulation means controlling the various mechanisms that cause more than one pad to close at a time. This can be especially tricky on oboe and english horn, where some mechanisms close up to four pads at a time. For instance, the low C touchpiece closes the low C pad, the E and F pads when that key is open on high notes, the F resonance pad through the E pad, and when moving from Eb, it also closes the Eb pad. It's almost never called upon to actually close all of these at the same time, but they all have to be precisely regulated so that it could. Having level pads is key to effective regulation, and it's made much easier on an instrument like this that has regulation screws.


Once regulation is done, any slop in the mechanisms has to be dealt with. If one key starts to close, then catches one of it's dependent keys on the way down, that's known as lost motion, and is undesirable in most cases. Lost motion makes an instrument's mechanism feel unresponsive and "clicky." When one key closes another key (known as a dependent key), the ideal setup is that the dependent key start moving with the primary key as soon as it's pressed. This is achieved through properly trimming key corks and having consistent pad protrusion. A mechanism with no lost motion feels tight and gives the player positive feedback and a feeling of firmness when they close a key.


Step 7: Play Testing
Oh yeah! At some point, this project will produce something that's intended to make sound! Play testing is in some ways a rewarding process. Making sounds on an instrument that you've fixed gives a feeling of payoff and gratification, especially if that instrument has been unplayable for a long time, as this one has. It can also be a trying process, though, as it forces the technician to listen and feel carefully for problems with the instrument. Even an instrument that's been carefully worked on will have some sort of issues come up in the play test, and it's the mark of a professional to be able to hear those problems, find the faults in their own work, and figure out how to fix them. The technician must be their own worst critic in this stage.


Step 8: Lost motion
Once issues are dealt with and regulation is done, any slop in the mechanisms has to be dealt with. If one key starts to close, then catches one of its dependent keys on the way down, that's known as lost motion. In most cases lost motion is undesirable. It makes an instrument's mechanism feel unresponsive and "loose." When one key closes another key (known as a dependent key), the ideal setup is that the dependent key start moving with the primary key as soon as it's pressed. This is achieved through properly trimming key corks and having consistent pad protrusion. A mechanism with no lost motion feels tight and gives the player positive feedback and a feeling of firmness when they close a key.


Step 9: Voicing
Voicing is the step with which I have the least experience, and involves listening for tonal inconsistencies in the instrument and tuning issues with particular notes. If certain notes "pop" or sound muffled or certain notes are noticeably out of tune, they are dealt with in this step. Voicing can involve changing the height of key openings or placing material inside tone holes to adjust clarity or tuning. It's a meticulous process and requires great patience. One can expect a lot of frustration and minor setbacks at this point in the game, because the adjustments have become so fine.


Step 10: Profit!
Well, maybe not in this case, but if all the other steps are done well, the instrument should have a long playing life with minimal regular maintenance.

The condition of the instrument...

is pretty poor. A lack of proper care over the years has caused the wood to dry out, making it susceptible to cracking, and previous repairs were done without the care one would hope to see. Most notable among these repairs is a left-hand F lever that was installed at some point. Nowadays these are treated as a necessity on professional instruments, but presumably they weren't back in 1925. Having an indoor toilet also wasn't considered a necessity in 1925, and it's in these two areas - personal sanitation and left hand F levers - that I believe Western society has made the greatest leaps over the last century. 


I don't know who installed this mechanism, but I'll call them Repairman X. I might call them "The Butcher" or "Captain Decimation," but I would never insult someone else's work like that in a public setting. 


On the most basic level, the accepted way of doing such an installation would be to adapt the new key to fit the existing key work. Repairman X did the opposite - adapting the existing keywork to fit his key, as can be seen in the photos below. The first 4 photos show some of what he did. The diagram below is just to give a reference for where on the instrument each picture comes from.

 1. The arm Repairman X made to connect the left F lever to the F key. The arm itself is actually pretty sturdy and well made, and there was clearly some attention to detail. Note however that the F key touchpiece is bent to the right to accommodate this new piece. The lower post for the arm, the one that they installed (with the rod sticking out a little bit) is not quite aligned with the other posts, so the arm is angled slightly toward the bottom of this picture. Note also that the recess in the E key has been filled in with something, probably solder.

2. The posts for the left F lever. Aside from the very obvious and severe body damage between them, the area around each post is gouged out, especially the post on the left of this picture, which had to be sunk pretty far into the body to prevent it from rubbing against the Eb/B/Bb key. It looks like the posts were taken from two different instruments.

3. In order to remove the hinge rod from the key that Repairman X made and installed, it was necessary to remove one of the posts for the Eb/B/Bb key stabilizer ring. During the installation of the left F mechanism, the stabilizer posts were moved, and there damage that was done when they were reinstalled is clearly visible in the center of this photo.

 4. The same as #3, but with all the posts removed. As far as I can tell, the area in the upper right is where the stabilizer posts used to be, and was filled in when those posts were removed. From the inside of the instrument, it looks like the hole underneath that filler goes all the way through to the bore.

 These two photos show the left F touchpiece that Repairman X made. The left is a general view of the key, and the right is a detailed view of the hinge tube and the two pieces of the key joined on it. On a factory-made key, those two pieces would be one solid piece of metal, with a hole drilled through that the hinge tube would be fed through and soldered in place.

Other issues resulting from the installation of the left F mechanism are:

-A notch was cut in the Eb/B/Bb key rod to accommodate the mechanism

-The alternate C lever (banana key) appears to have been moved, and part of the C key was bent to accommodate its new position

-The arm connecting the Eb/B/Bb key to the D key (which closes the D key when left Eb is pressed for trilling from Eb to E) has been completely removed, as has the spud on the D key that it would have touched

One other bizzare modification was a bead of solder that was laid along the bottom of the C key assembly. I haven't yet figured out that mechanism, but it looks like there are three separate pieces on the C key hinge rod, with the outer two attached directly to the rod (so they move together) and the middle piece able to move independently or as a part of the larger assembly. Here's the bead of solder:

There's some sort of spring under there somewhere

Not all of the damage was man-made. (Let's be fair, though, most of it was) There are also cracks around both sockets - on the lower joint and the bell. Both sockets have metal linings, and over time it looks like the wood has contracted more than the metal - or the metal has expanded more than the wood - and as a result the wood has cracked. Both sockets have two cracks that go from the ring at the top to approximately the bottom of the metal liner. Below on the left is the lower joint with the socket ring removed and wooden shoulder visible, and on the right is the bell.

Among other issues are damage to tone hole rims and worn keys. And it may go without saying, but all the pads and corks need to be replaced along with several springs. There are also a lot of scratches and gouges. I'll likely leave a lot of the smaller scratches, if only to leave some evidence of what things used to look like. No, that's not true. It's really because filling them all in would be a giant pain in the ass. There are, however, some large gouges taken out of the crown that I'd like to address.

I'll end this post with what may have been the most egregiously hackish thing done to this instrument - red Loctite on EVERY pivot srew, hinge screw, and shaft lock screw.

In the background you can see where a shaft lock screw was replaced with a simple knock pin. The pin effectively held the key together, but potentially damaged the threads inside.

Much to do!

The instrument...

is a Loree english horn. When I first got it I noticed that the serial number starts with SS, which is strange because it doesn't fit anything in that company's current numbering system. As of 2009 they'd only reached RH. I emailed Loree to find out if they could shed any light on the instrument's age, and got a surprisingly quick response that it was made in 1925. Other things created in 1925 include The Great Gatsby, Mount Rushmore, and Paul Newman. When this instrument is finished, I imagine it will probably be on part, artistically, with those three. The only other record I've seen of a Loree english horn that old was another instrument made that same year by Lucien Loree himself. Does that mean that he made my instrument as well? I couldn't say for certain, but I'd like to think it's possible, and I plan to proceed with a level of caution that assumes that possibility.

I work in an instrument repair shop...

and recently came across an old english horn that's badly in need of a great deal of work. Actually, I didn't "come across it" so much as had it handed to me by my coworker, who was clearly pleased at realizing that he'd finally come up with a way to stop me from complaining that I don't have an english horn to use regularly. This blog will chronicle the process of repairing and restoring that instrument to working order, with the ultimate goal being that I'll be able to use it as my own personal instrument. Do I expect that others will follow and read this blog? No. But that won't stop me from writing it as if I have an audience of thousands. So join me, imaginary reader, in this journey that will (hopefully) leave me feeling very fulfilled but really has nothing to offer you in terms of emotional satisfaction.


This is the first stage of the project - Excitement!