B. Rule & Company

B. Rule & Company Building new mechanical action organs, restoring historic organs, rebuilding electro-pneumatic and tracker organs.

Today: Newly washed and straightened Viola pipes from a 1948 Aeolian Skinner. And a pleasing little pile of pine shaving...
08/06/2026

Today: Newly washed and straightened Viola pipes from a 1948 Aeolian Skinner. And a pleasing little pile of pine shavings just now created as a result of flattening pallets on a hand plane for a tracker organ.

07/10/2026

R & D at B. Rule & Co. Non- traditional materials hold great promise for novel tone production.

A summer afternoon at B. Rule & Co.
07/09/2026

A summer afternoon at B. Rule & Co.

Late afternoon sun at the workshop, streaming onto the Lemuel Hedge Memorial Bandsaw.
07/03/2026

Late afternoon sun at the workshop, streaming onto the Lemuel Hedge Memorial Bandsaw.

To have an employee who executes her work with flawless perfection is a fine thing, but add to that a flair for the arti...
06/05/2026

To have an employee who executes her work with flawless perfection is a fine thing, but add to that a flair for the artistic, and we get, not just labels, but what appears to be formal christenings. These are beautiful, and unlike my own scrawl, completely readable.

“Free” lumber. Several months ago B. Rule & Co and our AME Zion church neighbor undertook to cut down an enormous red o...
03/06/2026

“Free” lumber. Several months ago B. Rule & Co and our AME Zion church neighbor undertook to cut down an enormous red oak that sat right on the property line. We had a sawmill come this week and quartersaw it all: right now it’s stickered and stacked outdoors. It will go into our solar lumber kiln for final seasoning in a few months. 1,500 board feet.

The B. Rule crew is at First Presbyterian, Bristol TN this week. After a month spent completely restoring the Swell and ...
11/23/2025

The B. Rule crew is at First Presbyterian, Bristol TN this week. After a month spent completely restoring the Swell and Great chest of Hook & Hastings Opus 1700, we are installing the organ in the acoustically excellent chapel at 1st Pres. Previous restoration work was done about six years ago by Randall Dyer and Associates, who refinished the case and restored it to its original appearance. The Episcopal diocese recently closed that church, and donated the organ to First Presbyterian. Here are some photos of the organ as it gets assembled.

Update from two hours ago: sliders and gibs for Swell and Great all done; all planed to within .002” tolerance and then ...
10/28/2025

Update from two hours ago: sliders and gibs for Swell and Great all done; all planed to within .002” tolerance and then sanded perfectly flat. Ready to apply graphite and shimming and then toeboards can go on.

The old dark green poplar is so beautiful to work with!

We have re-tabled a little 2-7 Hook & Hastings. The sliders were pretty cupped, so after getting them perfectly flat on ...
10/28/2025

We have re-tabled a little 2-7 Hook & Hastings. The sliders were pretty cupped, so after getting them perfectly flat on the bottom, it became necessary to nail the gibs back down, and then lightly tack down the sliders, and hand plane the whole shebang, so the shimming works perfectly. This is the beginning of the first pass: we plane until there are no low spots. One must be certain to hit every single little brad with a nail set, or there will be cursing and unhappiness when the plane iron needs to be reground and sharpened! After the plane, we sand with 8x10” sanding blocks through three levels of grit to remove the plane marks. It helps immensely when sanding if the plane iron edge was ground slightly convex. The sliders to the right have already received the full treatment.

This little Hook & Hastings had its pulldown wire holes drilled out for 2mm wire at some point: the fat aluminum wires w...
10/23/2025

This little Hook & Hastings had its pulldown wire holes drilled out for 2mm wire at some point: the fat aluminum wires were causing binding and friction in the key action. I thought about using gasketed lead discs inside the chest, as one does in such situations, but instead decided to restore the brass pulldown strip on the bottom board. A couple of surgical incisions, a new piece of .025” brass, and some shaper work, and it’s all done.
The first photo shows the cove-cut piece of the old bottom board, cut out, and next to it, the old piece of brass with the too-large holes.
Second photo show the finished product: new brass and a new cove-cut piece to shield the pulldown wire loops. Just like the original, only lacking the patina.
Now for some garnet shellac to give it that 19th century color…

Address

New Market, TN
37820

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+18654759125

Website

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