Day 1. 

I used a metal buffer to polish brass piano top (lid) hinges. These were previously soaked in a chemical solution to strip off excess dirt. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. Safety first: Always wear goggles. 
2. Wear gloves; your fingers will get black very quickly. 
3. Best done standing up; sitting didn't provide enough stability to me. 
4. Never look away from what you are doing; working with small pieces, you can get caught very fast if you don't have the correct angle. 

Day 2. 

Today, I stripped the old leather off from backchecks (the part that catches the hammer once it hits the string) and scraped off the remaining glued bits and pieces from the wood. Used a razor mostly, and a chisel for more stubborn pieces.

Lessons Learned: 

1. Chisel is more effective, but there is more risk to chop off a part of the wood too. 
2. A small razor gives you more control. 

Day 3. 

Measure the leather, mark the leather, cut the leather, cut it again into tiny strips, tape one side, use horse hide glue (smells disgusting) on the backchecks (the ones I cleaned yesterday), glue the leather on, wrap it with more tape to set the glue, repeat 87 more times.

Lessons Learned: 

1. When gluing the strips, always align one side, so that you have only the other side to trim. 
2. Try to be as precise as possible when measuring the strips; this will save you a lot of time in the next step. 
3. Glue shouldn't be too dense, or it gets cold too quickly, before you have had time to align and stick the leather on. 
4. If you get glue on the wood, immediately wipe it away; very difficult to shave off hard glue from the wood. 

Day 4. 

I trimmed off excess leather from the backchecks. This was a lot more tricky than I thought it would be. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. Tools need to be at their sharpest. 
2. Don't pull the leather; it won't cut evenly.
3. Try to minimize the "back-and-forth" movement of the cutter, or you'll get rugged edges instead of straight. 

Day 5. 

Finished releathering all the backchecks. This was more difficult than I expected. I wasn't able to be as precise as I wanted, as I had never cut leather before. Next time, don't forget lessons learned in Days 3 and 4. 

Day 6. 

There was more cutting today; with the right tool, I was able to closely shave off excess leather. Then, came the cleaning! On the edges/sides of all the keys, stuff from our fingers (dead skin, oil, dirt, dust, etc.) accumulate into black areas. Scrubbed all the keys with wet wipes. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. Use gloves.
2. You will go through a lot of wetwipes; make sure you have enough. 
3. Even if you will change the keytops, clean the keys first; always better to work with a clean surface.

Day 7. 

Today's task was to remove the damper level felt so that we can replace them with new ones. The old ones had dents on them; first I used a box cutter to cut most of the felt.. Then, brushed a solution of water + wallpaper remover on the remaining bits and pieces of felt. Wait for a few minutes, then chisel off the softened felt. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. Always chisel along the grain of the wood, not against. 
2. I used gloves for the solution part. 
3. If you brush the solution and try to chisel off right away, it won't work. Wait for 2-3 minutes.

Day 8. 

Having cleaned all the key-end felt, today it was time to glue the new one. I separated the keys into 3 batches, and first measured and cut the felt according to the needed length. The felt is glued in one piece, and once the glue dries, it is cut. It is a good idea to get everything organized, your felt strip cut, and then get the glue next to you and start.

Lessons Learned: 

1. The glue will dry quickly; better to do batches of 10 or so keys, because by the time you glue the last key, the first one is already dry and the felt will not stick. 
2. Make sure you spread the glue on the whole surface area, otherwise the edge of the felt will stay unglued. I had to reglue a few pieces after I cut them. 
3. Let the glue stick for about 10-15 minutes before cutting.
4. Use a new razor; it needs to be sharp. Start from the edge, between the keys so that you can align that with the razor and cut accordingly.

Day 9. 

I pre-tuned a piano! Yay! This is called “chipping”, because they would just use a wood chip to pluck the strings, and pre-tune each of them. I used an app called Tuner-Pitched, and a banjo pick apparently, to pluck the strings. We will not get into the details on how I broke a string while doing this. 

I also cut and glued more pieces of leather for a harpsichord this time. Using the multi-tool knife was much easier with the small pieces. I used a rotary cutter for the long strips though. 

Observations: 

1. The tuning hammer was tougher than I thought, both in strength and in getting the angle right so as not to scratch the pins. 
2. A colleague said they used the app for the first string, then used that to tune the other two, instead of using the app for all 3. I'll try that next time. 
3. I'm wearing a glove because I am touching the strings. 
4. By the time I was done, the strings were already out of tune again; apparently this process is done endlessly, until the strings and pins settle with time. 

Day 10. 

Now that the felt and leather for the backchecks is renewed, and capstains are polished, it was time to put the keys back in the keyframe. The "pear greene" front rail punchings are new as well. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. You don't need to push the keys in; if you align the balance rail pin, the key drops down on its own. 
2. We used two front rail papers under the felt. 

Day 11. 

Brand new repetition mechanism and whippens today; replaced them with the old ones. Glued new felt on the rail as well. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. It's not life-or-death, but it's better if the screws are kept in order. 
2. Doesn't matter if all of them are not aligned perfectly; they will be regulated anyway, so no need to tighten the screws too hard. 

Day 12. 

Time for new hammers! First, poke wholes through the felt by finding the wholes in the rail. I did this first with a sharp tool for small holes, then a slightly bigger one, but not too big so that the screw will still be tight. Then, screwed the hammer flanges to the rail. Tried to make them as even as possible, but the spacing issue will be resolved once the action goes on the pins I think. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. Use a good screwdriver that rotates both ways. 
2. There may be a goop of glue left under the felt; it helps to first put the screw in and out by itself. 

Day 13. 

Time for new balance rail and key bushings! I didn't do the removal of the old bushings, but there was a wet cloth, and an iron involved for steam, and our good old 1-to-4 ratio wall-paper removal solution. 

Steps to put new bushings: 

Cut thin strip of felt. Put hide glue at the edge. Align the glued felt with the hole. Insert the bushing caul with the single line at the bottom (should say "#1" on the box). Cut the felt. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. Even though the glue will dry fairly quickly, need to make sure the caul does its job, so better to leave it longer, like a day.
2. Usually, more glue means better, but in this case, a thin strip on the felt should be enough; you don't want the glue to get anywhere else once you insert the caul in.