Touring the Steinway Piano Factory

This morning I took the Steinway Piano Factory tour. It was just great! I had a terrific time. I wrote about it here. From the article:

We saw the process of creating a piano, from the raw wood (walnut, pear, spruce), to the veneer of all sorts (mahogony, rosewood, pommele), to the final tuning. The wood, like a harpsichord's, needs to be aged so that the moisture level drops to a very low percentage, something like 5%. It is stacked outside the factory in a way so that air circulates all around it. The wood is used for support beans, the rims, the soundboard and the case. The veneer is cut extremely thin and comes from all places like Africa and Canada. It's amazing what they do with the veneer to give the impression that the wood used is one continuous piece. They keep track of the tree from which it is cut and keep it all together so that it can be pieced together later on one instrument. One note about the woods used for the veneer - S&S is a pretty big stickler about having the proper paperwork in order when receiving these rare woods, and don't want to take any wood that has been harvested illegally.

Enjoy!