Over two years ago, I was faced with a set of hammers on an old piano that would not "voice" using needles. (No, I didn't try steam.) I figured that they would not respond to the needles because it was like putting holes in cardboard. Didn't change the overall hardness at all. At no expense to the buyer of this piano, since this was untried, I coated the surface of the hammers with lanolin and "melted" it in with my daughter's hair drier. I now feel that this was a low cost success. I just tuned the piano last week and the hammers still have a nice tone and range of tone. FWIW Larry Messerly, RPT Prescott/Phoenix a real "Bald-0ne"
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