Tamburo Opera snare drum

It was quite a long time since I had noticed that black, half-wrecked snare drum on the floor of the reharsal room, but it was just few months ago when the owner announced he was going to live in Australia that I asked him if I could take the thing home and try to restore it.

I knew before starting that it was going to be a desperate try becouse the snare, a Tamburo stave shell, had been treated so badly the paint had fallen down to pieces, a lug was broken an the hardware was rusted.
Anyway, I decided to try the impossible and begun disassembling it. After opening it and starting to clean the shell I noticed things were actually worse than I expected: the staves had been bent by the high tension of the rods.

Still being very upset and everything I went on with the job, I removed the old paint and prepared a smooth surface for the new finish to be applied.
All the hardware was cleaned with extra fine steel wool and was soon ready for assembly but I still missed one lug, so I started looking for a spare piece over the internet.
In few days, thanks to the very kind guys at statatra music shop (italy) I was shipped the missing lug (in chrome finish instead of gold which was unavailable anywhere).

While waiting to receive the spare part I was busy applying the new finish, a dark satin oil (walnut like) and getting new hardware parts to replace the old and rusted ones.
In the end I was able to re-assemble the thing and I tried to lessen the effects of the bending of the staves by applying some sleeves between lugs and shell.
I'm now testing this snare drum and it's revealing to be almost palayable even if not perfectly tuneable.
Specs are:

Tamburo Opera
Birch Stave shell
14" x 6.5"
November 2000

It's always a pleasure to save a musical instrument from "death" and I always end up developing a special affection for these objects when I have such a hard time taking them to a new life.