Filing over-needled hammers

Baldwin Yamaha Piano Centre baldyam@sk.sympatico.ca
Wed Oct 8 18:00 MDT 1997


Kent Swafford wrote:
> 
> I have a bit of a situation with a B in the studio of a concert pianist.
> The studio is a "voicing-intensive" situation and the hammers have been
> over-needled with glover's needles.
> 
> (FWIW, I don't use glover's needles and strongly recommend against them,
> based on the damage I have seen done with them.  They slice hammer felt
> open.)
> 
> A large number of these hammers are split open on the surfaces of the
> crown on either side of the striking area.  Smooth shaping while filing
> is impossible due to the fact that the wool that is pushed into the
> crevices during filing strokes is not removed, and builds up as ridges.
> 
> The piano does not sound all that bad yet, but my thoughts on this could
> change if I get a phone message to the contrary in the next few days.
> 
> Obviously, the hammers will have to be replaced shortly, but I need to
> keep this piano functionioning during the months that it will take to
> schedule new hammers.
> 
> I have considered soaking the hammers with an extremely dilute juice,
> hoping that the fibers would hang together enough afterwords to
> facilitate good shaping.
> 
> Any thoughts?
> 
> Kent Swafford
> University of Missouri-Kansas City, Conservatory of Music

Hi Kent,
        Try one stick of common white blackboard chalk, wrap in poly.
and smash with good sized hammer untill it looks like dust. Eight ozs of
acetone mix together makes a good hammer hardener that still can be
worked  with. Apply to shoulders and then iron with WARM voicing iron, I
think you will be suprised at the results.
  If the instrument is too brilliant see my previous post on steaming
hammers, in this situatuation have the cloth just damp and be careful.
The hammers should file resonably well with this treatment. The last
operation should be to iron down the nap and neddle marks for the best
results, I find that there is far less 'Zingers' after 30 days by using
this technique. If you have not tried this process then you have a
perfect set of hammers to try. 
Roger Jolly
University of Saskatchewan
Dept. of Music.


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