Bringing to Life Your Organ's Finish

As you probably already know, if you’ve read my comments on stripping antiques, I don’t believe in stripping any antique unless the finish is so bad that there's no other recourse.

What I do in the process of doing a complete pump organ restoration, is what you’d call a finish deep cleaning. In other words, the old residue, the old film that has collected on the organ's finish over the past 100-plus years is removed.

The next process is done in a couple of stages over a period of about five to six days. After the first step in completed, the finish has to dry completely. Then the second step is designed to bring out the wood's color through the finish. This is sometimes called the wood's "patina."

Finally, the entire finish receives a special coat of preservative to help keep the finish looking its best for the next 100 years.

By the way, this also includes the organ's canopy or hutch (the piece of furniture that sometimes sits on top of the organ that can be several feet tall).