Ron, I called a scientist here at BYU and asked what it would take to have some electron microscope pictures taken (we have 3) and he's looking into it. Not that anything is "definitive", even when clearly shown in a picture, but it might be fun to see. All this talk is speculative. I think it's more like a Mack truck running into a pile of jump ropes; some will be torn, some cut, some pushed aside, but who knows??? If I get access to the electron micro guys I'll like some idieas. And it loooks good that they will help. (They owe me...) Jim Most likely. We can squint and intuit, and construct any number of ways of looking at this based on nothing measurable, until we're absolutely convinced that we have the psychology of wool fibers down cold. Hey, if we can't intuit what the molecules are thinking, the fibers ought to be an easier call, right? In the end, we have an individual/s impression of what seems to be happening for that individual, by that individual's visualization of what may be the mechanism. Personally, I don't know. I stab when I can't get needles into a hammer by pushing, or am "roughing in", and push when I want better fine control. I have no idea whatsoever how the wool fibers fare in either case, and submit that no one else out there does either. I recently got the "opportunity" to voice down a Schafer & Sons grand, to some semblance of tolerability. A hundred holes in the shoulders didn't make a positive difference, nor did another 50 closer to the crown. Side needling was equally useless. I think I actually heard the holes in the hammer whistle on a forte blow at one point. As a last ditch, I did something I never do. I Vise-Gripped the suckers. What the hell, they're already trash. After a dozen or so mashes per hammer, I started getting something less hideous from them. More mashing, and needles started to have a discernible effect. Fluffing the pillow. Somewhere between what I'd like to hear, and where it was after the first Gripping, I called the play. It was generally conceded to be way less bad, which was adequate for the first pass. So... The mashing that actually made the net positive difference from the original to the tolerable didn't penetrate a single wool fiber. Does that make it a more desirable approach than stab needling? As to the much less dramatic changes resulting from the needling before and after the mashing, I can't say. So as to whether stabbing or pushing does or doesn't damage felt fibers one more than the other, and what that means as to hammer integrity and longevity, there doesn't seem to be any real data. I'd call it a do what feels right and produces the best result tor the invested time sort of thing. You'll probably do more good than harm in either case. Ron N
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