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Hippie Hedgehog posted:I repair brass instruments. There are lots of people doing it for a living, but for a computer toucher like me, it's a satisfying hobby. It started with acquiring a vintage instrument that needed some work, and seeing that sending it to a pro would be cost-prohibitive. I've since bought more old horns and practiced on them until I feel like I have a grip on the basics. By odd semi-coincidence, I play brass instruments but I sorta fell into the weird hobby of repairing/restoring old Victorian reed organs. It started with finding a mostly-functional but rather distressed one priced at £25 in a charity shop when I was at university, and then realising that there were other similar instruments going for similar prices. It was very satisfying to return a wheezing, breathless, screechy, sticky-keyed collection of scruffy wood and mouse-nibbled leather into a singing, expressive, dynamic instrument. I gradually progressed from just cleaning reeds, replacing felt strip seals and repairing bent linkages to working with old-fashioned jars of hot glue and strips of leather and chamois cloth to replace frayed bellows and stiff exhauster valves. And learning how to apply wood stain and layers of beeswax to wooden cases. It was a true hobby - taking on one instrument at a time, working on it when the fancy took me and then moving it on (usually for little to no financial gain) when I was done. I think I've done nine in total at a rate of about one a year. But I haven't actually worked on one for over a decade now since I moved to a place without the spare space to work on a reed organ in its dismantled form. I do still have one - a rather tired (but functional) Mason & Hamlin which has the makings of a really high-quality instrument. I'm just waiting for the time when we move to somewhere with more space. Unfortunately I don't have ready access to any of the 'work in progress' pics (I'll have to dig through my old hard drives) but here's the M&H in my front room: 
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Feb 9, 2024 00:30
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 02:07 |
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