Befuddled 2

[Delwin D Fandrich]

JIMRPT@aol.com wrote:
> 

> ...The farther from vertical the grain
> is on a shank the more sideways (rotational) movement of the hammer there
> will be, growing larger with the increase in the force of the keystroke.  On
> a Fortissimo blow, with a shank whose grain runs very far out of vertical,
> the hammer will be swiping the strings instead of hitting the strings
> squarely...... and the force of the blow will tend to force the hammer
> further to the side toward which the grain runs adding to the swiping motion.
> ...No more on hammer shanks from me, I promise.
> Jim Bryant (FL)

So, my question is,,,

After reading this, and all of the other learned dissertations on the
subject, over the past few days (weeks?): If the hammershank is doing
all of this wobbling around and causing the hammer to do all of these
crazy things, why is it that (unless the flanges are particularly loose)
as the hammer wears, it wears those three (or two, or one) nice, neat
grooves in the striking surface where it has been consistently impacting
the strings all these years? And this, presumably, with fortissimo blows
and pianissimo blows and everything else in between.

OK...no more on hammershanks from me, I promise.

ddf