hammermaking materials

[gordon stelter]

Thanks Del,
      For taking my post seriously! ( I've taken a
beating on the Forum lately, as you may have noticed.)
     I was as surprised as you at this but, no, she
definitely said "Teflon" and I asked again to make
sure I wasn't hallucinating. She assured me this was
the case!
     I have a customer deep in the "Non-woven" fabric
industry ( surgical, etc..) so I just might give him a
chunk of hammerfelt, describe some parameters and see
what he thinks. I wonder if there's a "resiliency
rating" for textile fibers? Some gadget which tests
their ability to rebound from flexing, repeatedly? 
     Gordon Stelter

--- Delwin D Fandrich <pianobuilders@olynet.com>
wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "gordon stelter" <lclgcnp@yahoo.com>
> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
> Sent: September 22, 2002 1:39 PM
> Subject: Re: Voicing
> 
> 
> > Yes. I know this sounds odd. But Dave Stanwood's
> wife,
> > a felter, told me this and I therefore don't doubt
> it.
> > Maybe they had a lot of Teflon(TM) lying around,
> and
> > were looking for new uses. After all, this is how
> > nitrocellulose lacquer came into being: as a means
> of
> > disposing with WWI surplus guncotten. I think
> Steinway
> > was also the first to use this lacquer for piano
> > cases.
> >      I just wonder at the wisdom of experimenting
> with
> > Teflon for this, as Teflon sticks to almost
> nothing,
> > whereas any material used for felt substitution in
> > hammers would need to stick rather well to itself,
> and
> > a hammermolding.( If there was one. )
> >      Gordon Stelter
> 
> 
> 
> I can think of a number of materials and fibers it
> would be interesting to
> experiment with, but for hammermaking Teflon would
> surely be close to the
> bottom of the list. It readily cold-flows, it's not
> at all resistant to
> impact stress, it's not at all resilient, it's
> not--well, you get the idea.
> In fact, I can't think of any particular
> characteristic Teflon has that
> would make it suitable or desirable for hammer.
> 
> Personally, I would try working with one of the
> various types of
> polyurethane. Having myself made some interesting
> sounding hammers out of
> this material I wonder if this is not more like what
> they were up to. That,
> or something like one of the wool/Kevlar blends.
> 
> Del
> 
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