Evidence of overlacquered hammers

[Barbara Richmond]

> And what does one do with the acetone used in the drenching?
> Hopefully no one is dumping down the drain...;-[

> David I.

Thanks, David, I knew there was a reason I didn't want to do that!  :-)

Barbara Richmond

PS  Sorry about the spelling below.  I was in a hurry to get out the door 
and didn't proof read.  tsk..tsk...



----- Original message ---------------------------------------->
From: Barbara Richmond <piano57@flash.net>
To: Pianotech <pianotech@ptg.org>
Received: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 08:41:12 -0500
Subject: Re: Evidence of overlacquered hammers

>So what does one do to help it, drench with acetone?  I must admit, I
>haven't tried that yet.

>What the heck, even though it's polically incorrect and 9 or ten years ago
>I
>was told I was clogging up the hammers, here's what I've done with hammers
>with too much lacquer and when needling or whatever doesn't do the trick.
>I've had a lot of experience with this, because *every* Steinway at IWU
>(where I was on staff)--except a new D--had been over-lacquered and since I
>had no parts budget, I had to do something.

>I use a glass syringe (I batted my eye-lashes at the pharmacist 22 1/2
>years
>ago to get it without a prescription) and needle (of course).  Mix 8 parts
>alcohol and one part fabric softener (yeah, yeah, I've heard what some
>folks
>think of fabric softener, but it works).  Carefully, one drop at a
>time--and
>you may only need one drop--on the place that has the lacquer, or any other
>place that you want to soften up.   It works and it can sound great.   The
>nice thing about the syringe is it's easier to control where the stuff goes
>and with careful use, one can control the size of the drop.  If the sound
>gets brought down too much, do whatever you'd do to brighten it up again
>(filing, iron, etc.).

>There you have it.

>Barbara Richmond