On Apr 8, 2009, at 7:02 PM, Mark Cramer wrote: > My feeling is that some manufacturing processes result in an initial > (rotational) friction that is more a result of cloth tension than > density. So, when I take a new flange that won’t swing, hit it with > some CLP, and immediately it releases into 20 swings, the picture I > have is of a bushing coiled tightly around the pin, suddenly loosing > its grip and releasing like a coil of piano wire that… oops. I don't think it is alignment or twist of the fibers. I don't think they get twisted around, even if you are burnishing with a spinning pin (as in one of Joe Goss' devices). I think they are held too firmly in place by lack of any room to move. I believe the friction is something chemical, maybe electrical (as in static charge), either resulting from something that hasn't been washed out, or some other, unexplained factor. I see this excess and unexplained friction in key bushings sometimes, which causes premature wear. In some of those "Asian flu" center bushings, there seems to be an extreme friction that extends past the bushings themselves into the birdseye - never really have been able to explain that. In these cases, when you press out the old pin, it is extraordinarily hard to get out. You ream and lube the bushing, and the pin feels fine in the felt. But it is squeaky hard to get through the birdseye. It seems that there must be "something built up." Friction can definitely be a result static electric charge. Hence, the effect of fabric softeners, which make fabric feel smoother and "silkier" (less friction between finger and fabric). Fabric softeners work by neutralizing static charge. I suspect this is a large part of what Profelt does. I have been experimenting with solutions of fabric softener and alcohol (usually with some water, as in 91% isopropyl) on hammer felt. The surprising effect I have found, in using it on shoulders, is that it makes it MUCH easier to press in needles. So I have done quite a bit of that, using the softener/alcohol mix as a "lubricant" for standard needling. So far with very promising results, in those hammers that are just too hard to get those needles to penetrate as far as I want them to. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090408/3adeb4af/attachment.html>
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