This is a Wessel, Nickel & Gross action, I have seens hundreds of them. Including some others of this similar vintage The "slots" of the cut is centered in the shank, all 29-30 in the last treble section. The cut is approx 3 inches long and less than a mm wide. It starts 1/2 in from the hammer butt and ends 1/2 in from the hammer molding. It has nothing to do with glue relief. It leaves the maple shank extremely flexible, which one might think was a bad thing. To my suprise none are broken! The cuts were made with some form of table type saw since the cut does extend somehat longer on one side. I feel confident that it may have relieved some of the woody sound that can be in that area. I just found it interesting and wanted to see if anyone else might have found this on any other piano. The more pianos I see, the more I think nearly everything has been tried once. Mark Ritchie RPT Columbus OH >>I have not run into this before, and the treble location would seem to indicate what you suspect. The ONLY other thing I can think of would be that the kerf would serve as a route for glue/air escapement when gluing shanks to butts and heads, but why only in the treble, eh? A one-time experiment that didn't make it thru an entire piano? Nah..... Mark Potter bases-loaded@juno.com
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