The normal practice, if you are doing it all yourself, is to glue the red felt to the damper head by putting glue on the wood. THEN glue the damper to the red felt by putting glue on the damper. This system allows less glue to penetrate the read felt so it can act as a universal joint gining the felts more flexability to absorb energy. I have encountered strips of felt that were warped because the red felt was glued on during manufacturing and I have used felts that were wonderfully flexable bejfore cutting them into pieces for gluing. I hope your felt is salvagable, but if not you may have far more trouble getting this felt to work well than the cost of more felt. At this point you must consider the value of your time and the ultaimate quality of the job. I have aknife, from Pianotek that I use exclusively for trimming red and damper felts. It is expensive, but being Japanese liminated steel it takes and hold an edge extremely well and cuts flush. Newton nhunt@rci.rutgers.edu
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