Cosmetic damage repair cost

[Vero James]

I wanted to ask about cosmetic repairs on the sound board of a Camac harp. It’s not my harp. Unfortunately I damaged the soundboard of a friend’s harp. It looks like it’s cosmetic damage, like a small ding on the wood with the lacquer scratched off . It’s about 0.5mm by 0.5mm

I truly feel horrible about it and would like to offer to pay for the touch-up or the repair of this. From your experience, is something like this going to be very expensive? I understand it’s going to be difficult for you to say how much it would cost without seeing it. But I suppose what I’m trying to understand is the range of repair cost to a harp. I’m not a musician at all and don’t know anything much about harps…. If you can give me an indication, that would be appreciated.

I’ve been feeling awful about what I’ve done, hence trying to do some research about what can be done.

Any information or advice would be very much appreciated.

[richard-hagan]

If it is natural color (versus stained) – which it probably is being the soundboard, try taking a walnut meat (the part of the walnut you would eat – not the shell), break it in half (to fully release the oil in the nut meat), and rub the ding with the broken edge of the nut meat. I have repaired quite a few dings to maple and to walnut harps and furniture using this method. I also was able to take out a whole bunch of scratches and dings on someone’s natural cherry lever harp using walnut meats. I keep walnuts around for this purpose. Best of luck!

[richard-hagan]

Some more thoughts: Virginia Harp Center and Atlanta Harp Center are Camac dealers in the U.S. You could contact one of them to see what they would suggest. Possibly there are touch up kits for Camac harps. If you are not in the U.S., go to the Camac website to find a dealer in your country. A dealer could give you contact information for a certified harp technician in your area. Regards, Richard

[carl-swanson]

The first thing you need to do is to try to establish what kind of finish is on the instrument now. Is it a lacquer or some sort of varnish/urethane? If it is a lacquer, then touching it up with lacquer will “melt” into the finish that is already there and will make the ding as invisible as possible. If it is a varnish/ urethane, that won’t happen. Another question: is the “ding” just to the finish? or is it a dent in the wood itself? If there is a dent in the wood itself, you or someone else may have to steam it out to get as much of the dented wood as possible to swell before putting a finish over it.

There are people around who are specialists in fixing things like this. I would look for one of them. Talk to antique dealers or wood finishers and see who they recommend. If you have an art museum near you and they have a conservation department, ask them for recommendations. There is no way to estimate the cost of any of this. The person who is going to do the work is the only one who can tell you how much it is likely to cost.

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