Visiting the Factory in Tula
Before the pandemic and the now ongoing war I had a chance to swing through Tula Russia in 2018.
Tula has been a hub of metalworking and craftsmanship for centuries and has been a center of arms manufacture for a long time.
It has a old fort (kremlin) in the center of town and the city itself was founded in the 1100’s
The city has been a focus of accordions for over 100 years and still has a large factory that was part of a collective with Weltmeister during the Soviet era. The factory is out in a industrial no mans land and has little if any markings to indicate what is there.
When we arrived via our taxi we were not sure if we were at the right place but a older man in a guards uniform came out and waved us in. Fortunately my companion spoke some russian and the woman who took us on the extensive tour spoke pretty good english.
Of all the factories I have visited this is the only one I have been to that still makes its own reeds and they have spent a lot of effort updating the technology.
A lot of the factory had hardly changed but demand is not what it used to be and a lot of machinery seemed idle but it could also be that certain parts were fired up at time to produce a part in bulk then shut down again. I spotted a dual bust of Lennin and Marx sitting on a electrical panel box, and an old faded sign to encourage workers to maintain machinery .
In contrast another room would have a modern CNC driven milling machine cutting valve decks or reed block parts..
There was a woman at a work station doing a custom pearl inlay accordion similar to the type of work I see on old instruments made in San Francisco 100 years ago.
There were hallways with shelves full of stamping dies and injection molds need for making keys and buttons and stamping everything from grills to bellows corners.
Of particular interest was the reed stamping machine, few factories make there own reeds and I had never seen this done except for a final assembly plant I saw in Klingenthal about 15 years ago (now closed). The factory precision wet grinds the reeds to a profile that for the most part pre tunes the reed so in many cased little or no further tuning is needed.
It was interesting to see celluloid being applied since it is such a critical element on a accordion. Having worked on 1000’s of instruments I get to see the development of its use from flat sections ,to flat curves to compound curves. Certain problems had to be overcome like shrinkage and joining edges together to create the instruments we see now.
There was a large area where the bellows and other finish work was done and it had the most people it had large windows and stands with potted plants to no doubt make it more pleasant in the winter.
The tour ended with a visit the the little museum and show room that had some nice instruments from the past and a selection of instruments currently in production.
I purchased a couple of the little “Toy” 7 key boxes they had, these look like the 7 key Chinese instruments but have unisonic reeds since this is traditional in the Tula area, the factory does not produce 2 tone reeds. I ended up modifying about fifty of these before I stopped ordering them.
It is unfortunate that I will not be returning since there was a lot that i did not get to see. The city is famous for Samovars and has a folk character that roughly translates as “one eyed lefty” who was a famous craftsman and there were a few statues of him.
Tula has been a hub of metalworking and craftsmanship for centuries and has been a center of arms manufacture for a long time.
It has a old fort (kremlin) in the center of town and the city itself was founded in the 1100’s
The city has been a focus of accordions for over 100 years and still has a large factory that was part of a collective with Weltmeister during the Soviet era. The factory is out in a industrial no mans land and has little if any markings to indicate what is there.
When we arrived via our taxi we were not sure if we were at the right place but a older man in a guards uniform came out and waved us in. Fortunately my companion spoke some russian and the woman who took us on the extensive tour spoke pretty good english.
Of all the factories I have visited this is the only one I have been to that still makes its own reeds and they have spent a lot of effort updating the technology.
A lot of the factory had hardly changed but demand is not what it used to be and a lot of machinery seemed idle but it could also be that certain parts were fired up at time to produce a part in bulk then shut down again. I spotted a dual bust of Lennin and Marx sitting on a electrical panel box, and an old faded sign to encourage workers to maintain machinery .
In contrast another room would have a modern CNC driven milling machine cutting valve decks or reed block parts..
There was a woman at a work station doing a custom pearl inlay accordion similar to the type of work I see on old instruments made in San Francisco 100 years ago.
There were hallways with shelves full of stamping dies and injection molds need for making keys and buttons and stamping everything from grills to bellows corners.
Of particular interest was the reed stamping machine, few factories make there own reeds and I had never seen this done except for a final assembly plant I saw in Klingenthal about 15 years ago (now closed). The factory precision wet grinds the reeds to a profile that for the most part pre tunes the reed so in many cased little or no further tuning is needed.
It was interesting to see celluloid being applied since it is such a critical element on a accordion. Having worked on 1000’s of instruments I get to see the development of its use from flat sections ,to flat curves to compound curves. Certain problems had to be overcome like shrinkage and joining edges together to create the instruments we see now.
There was a large area where the bellows and other finish work was done and it had the most people it had large windows and stands with potted plants to no doubt make it more pleasant in the winter.
The tour ended with a visit the the little museum and show room that had some nice instruments from the past and a selection of instruments currently in production.
I purchased a couple of the little “Toy” 7 key boxes they had, these look like the 7 key Chinese instruments but have unisonic reeds since this is traditional in the Tula area, the factory does not produce 2 tone reeds. I ended up modifying about fifty of these before I stopped ordering them.
It is unfortunate that I will not be returning since there was a lot that i did not get to see. The city is famous for Samovars and has a folk character that roughly translates as “one eyed lefty” who was a famous craftsman and there were a few statues of him.
RSS Feed