Celtic Knot Rolling Pin
Price (incl. GST): $198
Materials: Upcycled piano spruce & walnut
Size: 520mm L (Roller 300mm L) X 65mm W
Weight: 739g
Maker: Lionel Hart (Woodbug 24)
 
This rolling pin features 200-year-old spruce wood with a walnut insert Celtic knot. All materials have been reclaimed from an unwanted piano and turned on a wood lathe. Satin finish. Nitrocellulose Lacquer.
 
Spruce and walnut were used extensively by piano makers.
 
The maker of the rolling pin is woodturner Lionel Hart (Woodbug , Preston, Vic. Australia)
 
Available now for immediate shipment
 
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THE MAKER
 
Lionel Hart is 82 years old. He was always interested in working with wood.
 
He bought his first lathe for home in 2011 and joined a woodturners Club in 2012 to initially get some training but his skills in woodturning developed to such a degree that he now also instructs turning and safe use of tools and machinery to his club members.
 
Lionel finds working with high quality piano timbers is a lot of fun and mind stimulating.
 
You’ll find Lionel’s handcrafts are of superb quality too.
 
THE WOODS
 
The materials from which a piano is made are very important to its quality as an instrument, affecting the sound and the playing and listening experience.
 
Half a pianos weight and 70% of its volume is wood. Back in the heyday of piano manufacturing, the wood was mostly sourced from a nearby mill using local wood to serve the purposes of the various parts of the piano. The desirable properties of wood always depend on its application in the piano.
 
Spruce
 
Piano makers chose spruce wood both because of its pliable nature and it is particularly lightweight for its strength and stiffness.
 
Spruce trees for European pianos are selected at 4,200-7,000 feet above sea level with at least 17.7 inches diameter and are least 200 years old.
 
For centuries timber was cut exclusively in the winter and only at certain times according to the phases of the moon. These specific, moon-related felling guidelines have been passed down through generations and have proven to be effective for harvesting the best spruce wood for production. Specifically, harvest takes place exclusively in the winter and before a new moon. This is because in the winter the moisture content is at its lowest, with studies showing favorable conditions for less shrinkage, moisture loss and weight.
 
Walnut
 
Walnut is also a great example of a hardwood with a very particular tonal purpose in pianos. Due to its density and durability, walnut is a premium wood for creating the hammers within a piano but also commonly appears in its casing.
 
Walnut wood is popular among woodworkers and furniture aficionados alike. Apart from its beautiful colour and grain, walnut wood is also known for its durability.
 
Walnut is a burl wood, that is, one of the tree species that get knotty growths at the base of their trunk. This condition causes the wood to grow irregularly and creates some pretty cool grain patterns on the interior of the wood and for that reason, walnut features on many, many pianos as stunning book matched veneers.