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11 Mar 97
Dear PIANTECH Contributors:
I am told the following article has been inserted into this forum:
"An interesting note. A hammer is the felt and the felt is the fiber.
Long renowned in felt making circles is the wool fiber from South African
Merino Sheep. The finest, most resilient felt is produced from blends
that have a high percentage of this fiber.
"For decades South African wool fiber has been generally absent from piano
hammers produced with felt made by countries who joined in the embargoes
on the previously raciest regime. With the uplifting change in politics
and the lifting of embargoes, South African Merino Wool Fiber is once again
used in Steinway hammers. This information is from the president of the
Bacon Felt Co. in Taunton Mass. who produce hammer felt for Steinway, not
to far from my home on Martha's vineyard."
David C. Stanwood
- - - -
Up until now I have not been a member of this forum, but have requested
membership after being told of the posting of this item. I apologize if
there are any errors from the original in my quotation, but this is how
the communication was passed to me.
By way of background, my name is Earl S. Dunlap, Jr., and I am a chemist
& textile chemist by schooling working for Bacon Felt Co., Inc., of
Taunton, Massachusetts, USA. Bacon is known in industry terms as a
"pressed felt" manufacturer and was established in 1825 in Winchester,
Massachusetts. Subsequently, Bacon moved to Taunton, Massachusetts, where
our felt manufacture is concentrated primarily products of 100% wool.
We manufacture to meet a variety of grades, sizes and shapes, typically
made to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and Society of
Automobile Manufacturers (SAE) specifications but also to meet precise
customer needs.
Probably of most interest to those who frequent this forum will be the
fact that we manufacture not only polishing wheels, sheet felts, highly
engineered 100% wool felt and resinated polyester needlefelt capillary-
active products but also specialize in manufacturing pianofelt. We are
one of, as far as I know, the three remaining pianofelt manufacturers in
the U.S.A.
Currently we make top-hammer and (dyed) under-hammer felts, treble and bass
damper felts and back-check felts. We are capable of making most types
of true felts (as opposed to woven or needled felts). Inasmuch as we are
not a large company I wear several hats (no, not felt hats!), among them is
one of responsibility for the technical and some of the sales function
for our pianofelt products. I design the felts and provide technical
service to our pianofelt manufacturing operation.
With the foregoing as background it was with a some concern that I heard
from one of your regular forum readers that the above article had been read
around the world. While I am sure no harm to my company was anticipated,
I am anxious to enter clarification.
There are indeed threads (Would I dare to say long wool fibers?) connecting
the subject article to the felt of what truly occurs in a mill. "Fineness"
has its place as we at Bacon know well, and "resiliency" is indeed a
very fortunate property of wool fiber. However, I must comment lest the
posting be left unchallenged to imply that the fiber used is <the> key to the
manufacture of good pianofelt. This is a concern to us lest potential
customers on either side of the Atlantic or Pacific be mislead as to our
company's capabilities.
I would note in passing that similar thoughts to those expressed in the
quotation at the top of this posting were also expressed by some of the
attendees when I had the honor of speaking last year before the Boston
Chapter of the Piano Tuner's Guild. There appeared to be overemphasis
placed upon certain supposedly well known factors pertaining to felt
manufacture, e.g. the species of sheep.
I have followed recent submissions to "pianotech" while I was learning
how to make this posting, and I was quite interested in the comments
made on the differences between U.S. and European (not to mention Asian)
hammerfelts. Your contributors as well as we at Bacon Felt recognize the
substantial differences between felt made for the different traditions.
Inasmuch as we design and manufacture felt to meet the substantially
different requirements of European and U.S. hammer makers, we are inter-
ested that it be known that in the case of our felt these differences
occur because of the purposeful engineering of our product. We can and
do design the felt to perform for the end use and are not restricted to
making either U.S. or European (or Asian) style hammerfelt. We have
learned how to do this through substantial effort, and I assure you that
much more than choosing and blending the fiber in the felt is involved.
Felt manufacture, particularly hammerfelt manufacture, is a complex and
difficult operation. We at Bacon easily count twenty to thirty factors
which must be considered in the engineering and production of the product
our customers require. When divided into subgroupings, the list becomes
far longer. (I would, incidentally, be happy to expand on this to those
with further interest.) Of these factors the necessity of using wool
from a particular species of sheep or from a particular region is normally
one of our lesser concerns.
By the above I do not wish to imply that we do not use care in the
selection of starting fiber. We certainly need adequate starting fiber.
Wools of the coarser varieties most often used for carpet manufacture
would are inadvisable. However, fiber which will satisfy the requirements,
e.g. for fineness and color, of the better A.S.T.M. grades consistent with
the end felt desired are suitable. Particularly, the fiber lengths in the
blend must have a smooth transition of lengths from long, but not too long,
down to just long enough to remain in the blend (pretty short) as it moves
through carding and hardening to felting. This care is necessary for all
felt manufacture. It enables us to produce a felt of sufficient strength
to make the required density in an economic amount of time with no sacri-
fice in quality.
Wool is an expensive fiber. Our aim and, that of every felt maker, must be
to assemble blends with the specified final requisites from the most eco-
nomic starting materials. Then, once we have formulated a properly felting
blend, we move to what I feel is the real accomplishment, that of arranging
the many aspects of the process so that the precise requirements of a
specific customer are met on a consistent basis.
Manufacture of pianofelt with the desired fiber orientation, distribution
of fiber (bass to treble), balance of pressing (All hammer felt is pressed
to some extent.) vs. true felting, thickness, density, degree of felting,
layering, length, width, water content, and weight UNIFORMLY AND REPRO-
DUCIBLY is at best not an easy job. Although it is true that the starting
fiber must be properly chosen, too many factors are involved to justify
simplifying the issue to the need for a particular starting fiber. I would
assure you that variations in the factors I have listed above and other
factors can easily confuse one who would attribute the cause of the change
just to a fiber property.
For a few years only, Cape wool was indeed embargoed, although we understand
that the embargo was circumvented by some by moving the wool through other
countries. During those few years--far less than ten; I think two or three
years--felters were forced to depend upon more expensive Texas wool for use
in their customary blends (say from two to six ingredients). --Incidentally,
we and others found the first Cape wools received after the end of the em-
bargo had suffered damage, probably because of conditions of storage!--
Freedom from damage and appropriate cleanliness to make grade are definitely
necessary. Damage can affect not only feltability but final resiliency of
the felt.
To return to the subject: we at BFC can and do routinely design pianofelts
for widely different requirements of our end users. I include American,
European and Asian traditions of hammers: those intended for and those not
intended for subsequent doping as well as for bright or for mellow tone,
"German tapers," straight tapers (pressings), and all weights and colors.
We feel that we are uniquely able to design and manufacture pianofelt to
meet widely varied customer requirements, and this involves far more than
the choice of fiber.
- - - -
My second objective in writing this piece is to state that no president of
BFC within our collective knowledge made the statement quoted above. We do
not as a matter of policy claim that we produce felt for a particular
customer. We do not, however, deny that we make pianofelt for the most
prestigious names in the world.
Approximately fifteen years ago we purchased the equipment, customer accounts,
and technical information of Standard Felt Company. Since then we have ex-
tensively modified our processes, adding modern scientific expertise wherever
appropriate. These modifications have come primarily after the time our
present management team came into existence in December of 1989. It was, in-
cidentally, after this that were rewarded with most famous accounts. Now
we can say with pride that our customers tell us we are the most flexible,
dependable, and capable manufacturer of pianofelt world wide.
Thank you for your patience in allowing me to make our statements. I hope
my attempt to give you a rounded picture of our situation has not seemed too
much like a commercial, but we did feel it necessary since this electronic
medium is so universal. Perhaps my contribution has even made some small
contribution to the readers of this forum.
Earl S. Dunlap, Jr.
Chemist, Bacon Felt Co., Inc.
Taunton, Massachusetts, USA
dunlapesjr@juno.com
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