Gedeckt Part 4: Refinishing the 16' Bourdon

The last step with the wood pipes was refinishing the 16' Bourdon.  These 12 pipes did not belong with the rest of the rank originally, but I wanted them to look like they did.  The Bourdon was painted grey, presumably to match metal pipes in the original installation.  I thought about stripping the grey paint, sanding them down, then staining and varnishing them to match.  Then I had visions of the console- picking the wood putty out of the grain with an awl and I quickly abandoned that idea.  I took a treble pipe to Sherwin-Williams to find a shade of brown that was close enough.  I explained to the sales lady what I was working on, and she suggested I try painting a faux wood grain.  She dragged a stain-soaked rag over a paint color swatch and I was impressed at the result.  I bought a can of Butterscotch paint and headed home.

Before I could paint, I had to sand the glossy grey paint so the new would stick.  I sanded out many scratches and gouges, but didn't worry about removing all the old paint.  I had the stoppers out for re-leathering and I also removed the lower lip and the foot so I could paint them separately.  The stopper handles were originally black, so I gave a fresh coat of black paint.  The lower lips of the 8' octave are already painted black so I painted these to match, being careful to not get paint near the wind way.  The feet were various colors and finishes, so I painted them all black so they would match.  Then I turned to the pipes themselves and gave them two coats of Butterscotch latex paint.  The color was alarming, but I trusted my color swatch and forged ahead.  I did not paint the upper lip either.  It had not been painted grey and I figured several coats of finish might affect the voicing. I left them the original bare wood.  I let the paint cure for 2 weeks.

For the first coat of stain, I used some Sherwin-Williams "Oak Mantle" that I already had on hand from another project.  I used a sopping-wet rag to wipe the stain on irregularly, then dragged the rag over it to give it some wood grain.  I started with low C because it will be hidden behind the swell box.  By the time I got to pipes F through B (which will be prominently visible) I had my technique down pretty well.  I let the stain cure for a couple days before making any judgments.

When dry, I decided the color was a little too reddish and light.  I had a can of 'Pecan' stain too that had a rather dark pigment without much color in the carrier.  This time, I used a squirt bottle to apply the stain.  A bit more messy, but a lot faster and a lot more fun!  I wanted to add a few darker highlights (should that be 'lowlights'?) rather than make it uniformly darker.  The squirt bottle worked very well.  I dragged the rag through the stain again to give some graining.  It was tricky to create convincing graining on the mitered portions, but it worked well enough.

I let the stain cure for a few days before applying a coat of satin varnish.  On close inspection, it's obviously wood that's been painted to look like wood.  But from a distance and when your eye is distracted by the rest of the organ, I think it is pretty effective.  I also used this technique to paint a previously painted cold-air-return grate in the living room to match the oak trim and it worked pretty well on that too!  In the comparison picture below, the Bourdon are on the left and the Gedeckt are on the right.

 Bourdon Refinishing Album