My name is Peter Jessen.
I'm a saxophone restorer and maker.
I'm situated in Copenhagen in Denmark.
I'll walk you through how I restore
a dented 1927 soprano saxophone.
This saxophone is totally out of working order.
It's badly dented.
It's bent.
I'll have to take it all apart,
and a lot of it is rusted together.
A lot of dent has to be taken out.
In order to make a good job on a saxophone like this,
you have to take everything apart.
Every part has to come off,
because you can't really work on bodywork
with all the keywork on it.
With the keywork rusted,
everything has to be addressed.
So you strip it completely,
take all keywork off.
For the disassembly, I use standard tools:
screwdrivers, pliers,
a little Bunsen burner to heat up, and oils.
The springs on old instruments are often useless.
They have lost all their flexibility and strength,
so they have to be clipped off or pushed out or both.
And sometimes it can be really taxing,
because they also are subject to rusting.
In order to get a perfect functioning instrument,
you have to replace all the springs
to get it really nice.
Here, I am removing the thumb hook,
which is what supports your right hand
when you carry the saxophone and you play it.
This is a small hook that's
soldered onto the tube for support.
And as it sticks out, it is often the one
that gets dented into the instrument.
The hook itself is quite thick and hard,
and you have to remove it to get to the tube
to get the dent out properly.
I have different tapered mantle parts
that I can put on a threaded rod,
so they will fit the exact spot
inside the bore of the instrument.
And I can push out the dents with that
and make a pretty good result
rather than using a ball or something not accurate.
This is a very good method of
getting the dents out precisely.
Problem with the instrument and dents
is very much where they are and how big they are.
'Cause a lot of players play on
fairly dented instruments with no problem.
If they're underneath posts that support mechanism,
you get problems.
Particularly on a small instrument like a soprano saxophone,
it is essential, because the tubing is very narrow
and you can't afford much discrepancy for the airflow.
Certain areas of the instrument
I can't get to with the tapered mantle parts.
I have to use a dent ball.
And I measure up the dent ball
to fit inside the tube where the dent is.
I slid it in.
And after that, I slid on the next ball dent,
and I can use that as a hammer
by swinging the instrument up and down.
So I push the first dent ball
through where the dent is and remove it that way.
Here I am using a hand-roller burnisher
to smooth the surface,
because after the dent balls
there will be slight ripples on the surface,
and you can remove that and also round the instruments.
If it's got a few high points, you can lower them.
The critical thing about dent work
is that you cannot expand the bore of the instrument,
which is an easy thing
if you slam on with a hammer
or you push too hard
with a dent tool or something,
because expansion of the body tube will disturb the bore,
which is essential for tuning,
which will affect your playing
and the instrument's playability.
This saxophone is very old.
It's been lying around probably for decades,
and silver plate will tarnish with age.
So it's very, very dull, gray-black-looking,
and it's such a nice silver finish underneath.
So the effort of polishing
will make an instrument that's beautiful.
On bigger instruments, you might use a polishing machine.
I could use one on this,
but it's nicer to get into the detail with hand-polishing.
The keys have to be polished.
I put the rag in a vise
and polish it from there
and get into the corners of every part of the key,
as far as you can.
After polishing, things will turn up
that you didn't notice
when the horn was dirty and tarnished,
and you see slight ripples
because the polishing surface
will reflect the light much more.
And here I'm smoothing out little imperfections
with a hammer.
Here, I use a hand-roller burnisher again
against a steel sickle that is fitted to the table surface.
This sickle will fit the rim of the bell,
and I can roll out the dents on the bell rim.
After straightening up the dent underneath the thumb hook,
I fit the hook
and I paste it on the underside with a paste,
which is keeping the soft solder flux,
which keeps the area clean
and helps the solder flow once I apply the heat.
After soldering the thumb hook on,
there will be some tiny excess solder on the sides,
which I remove with a polishing knife.
After finding the pad that fits the right key,
I preliminary fit it to the key,
and once I'm happy with the fit,
I heat up some shellac and stick it onto the pad
in order to put it back under the key,
fit it again, and then heat it into place.
With the shellac as a binder,
the pad will stay in place and it will be a nice seal.
Once all the keys are fitted,
you start by putting it together.
And there's a progression in how you do this.
You start with the right-hand mechanism
and you work your way through the instrument,
and it sort of follows logically
what comes first and what comes last.
Restoring a saxophone like this is long and arduous,
but at the end it is very satisfying
to make life anew for a saxophone from 1927.