Research:leather covered hammers

[Clark]

Hi, Diane,

Prompted by covered treble hammers in <~1885 squares and uprights, we've
covered a fair number of worn-out trebles on newer - 1890-1920 -
uprights on limited refurbishment budgets. A roll of ~1"x0.025" leather,
harder than buck/elk/deerskin showed up, and which has worked great,
hard-side up (it makes great hinges, too). Often there is no audible
break between covered and uncovered sections.

I picked a miserable late overdamper upright to experiment with a more
full treatment - a scientific success, perhaps but not quite pleasing
where I used a progression of thicknesses of similarly semi-hard leather
(tho' no durometer as of yet): I think, as you surmise, buckskin would
be appropriate for tenor and bass hammers.

> Can pianotech be a place where such research projects could be 
> shared?

Often the archives are more accessible than old Journals; illustrations
can be handy but which can be linked from posts.


Clark