Hammer height conundrum on a '46 Hardman grand

[Barbara Richmond]

George,

Very often you can bolster the wippen cushion also (pulling bushing cloth 
through).  I'd take care of things like this first and then go looking for 
other "causes."

Barbara Richmond

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "George Whitty" <gwhitty@optonline.net>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 11:38 AM
Subject: Re: Hammer height conundrum on a '46 Hardman grand


> >
>
> 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
>
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