Timely post... I just got back from an evening sorting session of a standard set of shanks from Renner. Lowest weight was 1.47 grams and highest weight was 2.14 grams. I sort them in ascending order for each size (width) and after weighing my dead weight hammer weights do a spread sheet sort on the hammers to make the best match with the strike weights. Saves me all kinds of work evening out finished Strike Weights. I'm not exactly sure how this eases my voicing work.... somehow seems counter intuitive that the heaviest hammer matched with the lightest shank will voice similar to a neighbor hammer which by happenstance has the lightest hammer and heaviest shank. I do run a check on the upper treble with a sounding block before sinking any needles in. Nice to identify any rouge shanks before I get started. Cheers RicB Jim and Alan, You guys have probably thought of this but I thought I'd mention it anyway because I haven't seen it as part of this thread. Calibrating the strikeweight from at least note 52 up before assessing the hammerline makes what you hear make more sense. I glue my line on straight with a calibrated strike weight, after sorting shanks by weight, and then I seem to have less need to vary the strikeline. I don't have any hard data from the way I used to do it before. I think the real difference comes from the sorting of the shanks as they can vary a whole gram or more. Calibrating strike weight without sorting the shanks really makes alot of unnecessary work and can make for some funny looking hammers in the treble section. At least this is something to consider. My treble voicing issues have become considerably reduced by doing it this way. I think that before I used this procedure I was more inclined to funkify my line than currently, not that I don't. Maybe I just feel like I get a better result overall. And maybe it's actually less funkification. I wish I could prove it but I wasn't looking for that particular improvement so I didn't do a good before and after. Anyway there's 2 more cents. Chris Solliday
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