Piano finish?

[Robert Bonomi]

I'll suggest that piano makers were using lacquer _long_ before the two ladies (Polly and Ester) got into the finishing business.

[Andy Dingley]

What's "lacquer" though ? Maybe Yamaha have finished the odd piano with a true urushiol lacquer, but Steinway never did (they just don't have the climate for it). Anything we term "lacquer" these days is to some extent a fake of the original.

AIUI, the original European "piano" finish was an ebonised fruitwood veneer, finished with a black dyed shellac and then polished to an ultra-high polish. This wasn't the usual french polish or vernis Martin, it was some obscure process involving an acid treatment of the hardened surface.

_Really_ old pianos were finished as harpsichords and violins were; complex decorative veneer work, with a spirit and plant-resin varnish. But that's not the same finish at all.

[johnny999_99]

Yes, lacquer (in some form or other) predates polyester.

This does not help the OP in his quest for the super glossy finish one sees on pianos today.

The OP asked for a process that "looks like it has been covered with a thin layer of lucite - very shiny and "deep". "

Do you think lacquer looks like lucite?

"OK. About that "Piano Finish" we hear so much about. There are two distinctly different finishes being talked about here. The traditional "hand-rubbed" piano finish and the more recent "high-gloss" finish. The high-gloss finish is polyester -- a plastic. "

I am not criticizing lacquer. I am merely trying to help the poster get the finish he wants.