Shellac vs. lacquer

[David Love]

Just a comment on using lacquer.  I assume you are talking about strike
point hardening since you mention that you don't use shellac to build up a
hammer from scratch.  I still use lacquer but the solutions I use vary.  For
crown lacquering I use a much more dilute solution than I use for building
up the overall density of the felt.  Whereas I use a 3:1 or 4:1 solution for
building up a hammer from scratch, I will use a 5:1 for the crown (your
dilutions may vary depending on the type of lacquer you are using).  At 5:1
the attack will be slightly sharpened.  One application of a couple of drops
is usually enough.  When the hammer is first played after it dries there
will be a bit of crustiness.  But a few blows shifting the una corda back
and forth as you play will break it up and leave just a bit more shine to
the attack without the any unwanted pinging.


David Love
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Kline" <sckline@attbi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: July 15, 2002 10:45 AM
Subject: Re: Shellac vs. lacquer


At 07:08 AM 7/15/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>You made the comment about the resins "breaking down" earlier, and now I
>must pursue it. Are you saying that the resins which have coated the
>fibers (sheathing them, actually) eventually crumble under the constant
>flexing/squashing of the fibers, leaving the resins segmented sheathings
>with their original mass and stiffness, but their elasticity decimated by
>segmentation? Inquiring minds have just awakened and are hungry.

!

Inquiring minds must do _experiments_, so that us cogitating minds have
fodder for cud-chewing.

One thing which attracted me to shellac in the first place was the
information that it broke down under a lot of heavy playing, getting
mellower instead of brighter. I have the impression that this is due to the
coating being fairly brittle, so that it shatters over time with heavy
blows. For me this is a real plus. I suppose if one wanted to firm it up
again one might be able to spritz in a little alcohol (no water) so that it
re-dissolved and then dried out again?

You do understand that shellac must be made up and used freshly, so that it
has little or no water in it? It gets gummy once it soaks up moisture, and
dries slowly or not at all. Bad scene.

Did you use the ultrablonde, to minimize the color problem? Actually, just
a trace of color can be a bonus even though it is a cosmetic drawback,
since you can see exactly how far the stuff soaks in.

Now if you want the real gritty about what the stuff does to felt fibers,
why don't you take a scrap hammer, soak it well in shellac, dry it out,
vise it to something sturdy with the felt aiming upwards, and whack it with
a mallet a bunch of times? Then take your knife, cut it open, and put thin
slices on a microscope slide?

Then LET US KNOW what you find!

Susan

P.S. A blow-by-blow of your return visit to voice that set of hammers would
be very welcome! I've used shellac for voicing, but never for building up a
new set of hammers from scratch before.