On Jun 3, 2010, at 10:54 PM, David Love wrote: > With respect to the question of more or less tearing with a fast or > slow stroke all I can say is when I get a flue shot every year I > think there's a reason that they employ the stab rather than the > press method and I'm not sorry that they do. But that is in line with a stab cutting more readily. The quick stab breaks the skin surface and some muscle underneath, and the needle penetrates. Press, and the skin indents and nerves are activated. The skin is a "solid" surface and needs to be cut to be penetrated. A hammer, OTOH, is a bunch of fibers with air space in between (unless it is ridiculously too densely pressed), and we want the needle to go in the space between fibers and spread them rather than cut them. That is what adds to the resilience, the bounce of the hammer. The fibers are (generally) stiffly joined in an array, and need to be loosened up, like a pair of jeans dried on the line. The less destructively we can do this, the better, or so I picture it - and experience seems to bear this out, both in longevity and tonal results. Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm
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