Newton Hunt wrote: > Roger, > > Some hammer felt sheets have tapered thickness and the density of the > felt tapers as well. Felt suppliers today are capable of supplying felt that is pretty consistent. It does vary in density from the thick end to the thin end, but this is intentional and fairly well controlled. > Hydrolic presses are most often used, except at steinway, I think. I think that the new Steinway presses are also hydraulic. I believe that now only Ronsen still uses hand screw presses. > Felt is not a perfectly homogenous material so there will be hard and > soft spots in any good hammer. Hand cutting is obsolete, Steinway may > still be doing it that way. Renner uses routing machines to form their > felt, Isaac uses an extremely sharp two bladed rail run cutter that cuts > extremely evenly. When I referred to hand cutting I should have been more specific. Hand operated cutters would probably have been more accurate. Anyway, it's not whether or not the cutters are hand operated or totally machine controlled. It's how the felt is shaped when the task is done that is important. Too often, that shape is incorrect. > As Isaac says, "A cannon ball is hard and a cotton ball is soft. Let's > talk more about the tone we want and ways and means to get that tone.". > > Different pianos and different venues will require different power and > tone elements to sound best. > > Newton > nhunt@jagat.com Certainly different pianos and different venues require differences in the hammers. What I find objectionable these days is the general trend toward an ever increasingly hard sound. Not all of this, of course, can be blamed on the hammer. Regards, Del
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