Bridge Notching Trouble

[Jon Page]

At 07:26 AM 11/4/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>I'll have some bridge notching coming up in a while. I have always had 
>some trouble in the past keeping the notched top edge sharp. By this I 
>mean I line the chisel up in the middle of the bridge pin holes, start my 
>downward stroke (I try to do a bit of a curve so that the top edge is a 
>large angle - not vertical, but more vertical than horizontal), but then 
>after going downward the first tiny bit (maybe one millimeter or so), I 
>need to angle the chisel more toward the horizontal. At that point I find 
>my chisel riding on the top bridge-pin-line edge that I just cut so nice 
>and cleanly. The riding motion tends to round off the nice top edge that 
>you want to be ever-so sharp. How not to do that? I can see that cutting a 
>straight angle would fix that problem, but I've always thought that the 
>steeper you can make the top edge, the better the termination (assuming 
>you don't undermine the bridge pin). I think Fazioli puts a vertical drop 
>on their bridges. Those pianos sound OK to !
>me.
>
>Terry Farrell

I ground the bevel on my chisel to a curve which eliminated damage to the 
pin line.
Regards,

Jon Page,   piano technician
Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.
mailto:jonpage@attbi.com
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