Hi,  Mr. Mark Kinsler said:

> ... I can easily see the problem that a fine craftsman would have
> with someone who wishes to paint a Steinway a nice lime green to match
> the rumpus room furniture.  You need the business, but at what cost to
> integrity?  I don't think that there's any good solution...

Whose integrity?  The wood piano's case?  Or the craftsman's feelings?

Well, I think that there is always solutions for everything and everyone.
We're not talking about the polyester era where any color is possible
(and to be honest, as I don't work with it, so I don't feel comfortable
to talk about these materials).

90% of the 'old' pianos in Portugal are black French hand made
lacquered, and the rest are in natural wood, but I have seen Luis XIV
dark green, D. Joao V Bordeaux, egg, light gray, gold leaf and so on.

Strange?  Well, I just don't judge other people's taste.  I prefer the
natural woods myself, but there are people who like to match the piano
with the rest of the furniture or whatever.  I always try to persuade
the customer that the original color makes the instrument more valuable,
and that it's the truth, but when this doesn't work what I do is to
preserve and isolate the wood before a color job.

There are lots of new products regarding the French hand made lacquer
work isolation.  I use myself simply a natural shellac layer to the
point where I don't see any wood pores; of course, this layer depends
on the wood you are working with.  Then the color: if it's a very dark
color, as black, blue, gray, red, rose, bordeaux, then I use alcohol
colors always mixed with shellac.

If it's a light color like egg, white, etc., I'll put what here we call
"lacquer paint".  With this paint your best friend is going to be the
sand paper -- each layer of this paint must be carefully smoothed with
sand paper, then finished with uncolored shellac; it's a very
work-intensive process but the result is nice.

By any of this processes you can easily remove the color with regular
paint wood chemical removers, saving the original wood.

Regards
Miguel de Mattos
Lisboa, Portugal