Hammer height conundrum on a '46 Hardman grand

[George Whitty]

>

Thanks to everyone who's helping me out with this.  I took some more 
measurements and another look at my situation.  I believe the hammers 
are only lightly worn and, to my untrained eye, they appear never to 
have been reshaped or filed (they're all perfectly consistent in their 
shape and texture, and the string grooves are somewhere between 1/16" 
and 1/8" deep).  Taking measurements from a variety of spots on the 
piano, the hammers are sitting anywhere from exactly 2" (at the very 
bottom) to a maximum of 2 5/16" (at the very top) below the strings.  
The knuckles do appear to be somewhat flattened (the little cloth at 
the core is still perfectly round, but the leather outer covering is 
somewhat flattened, with raised lines where the gap between the jack 
and the repetition lever is);  lifting the hammer to approximately 
where it would be if the knuckle were perfectly round does raise it 
significantly, so I think this, in addition to the compression on the 
capstan cushion, is how I'm ending up 1/2" out of spec in spots.  I 
tried raising the capstan to spec on one note and the difference is 
extreme;  the one note can now be played extremely soft or extremely 
loud, whereas all the "fallen" keys just won't play if they're played 
softly.  So I think raising the hammer heads is the proper way to go.  
All of which brings me back to the question:  either re-rounding the 
knuckles, as Barbara suggests, or simply raising the capstans, makes 
that gap between the hammer shank and the rest cushion go up to about 
7/16";  is this in spec?



> Hi George,
>
> How worn are the hammers?  Sometimes you can't quite get up to specs 
> if they're worn to the nubs.
>
> One suggestions is you might have a look at the knuckles, they may be
> flattened.  You can pull yard, bushing cloth or leather through the 
> knuckles
> to restore a round shape (use the 2 prong lacing needles that "grip" 
> bushing
> cloth or leather from Tandy Leather Company--they're online) .  
> That'll raise the hammers.
>
> Barbara Richmond