Reinforced Hammers, was hammer advice

[Alan]

Would someone with a gob of rebuilding experience please be kind enough to
comment on the term "reinforced" as applied to piano hammers. I have been
working on the assumption that it means ...

A) Dyed inner-felt to look like a few hammer makes that actually used a
different felt, glue, or process on the inner layers (was it Steinway?)

B) Staples or wires were added to give showroom Sideshow Bobs a "feature" to
point out. ("Our Crapiola Spinets have 9-ply pin blocks; that's more than a
Steinway concert grand has! And look, our exclusive Tinkle-Tone Soundboard
is also 9-ply. You won't find that in any other piano, at any price!")

And don't those staple holes just create a weak point in the wood? Frankly,
if the felt-to-molding glue bond is going to fail, I'm not impressed that
the sorry hunk of moth bait is still hanging on by a staple.

Am I nuts or is the above correct? Oh, wait, that may not be an "or"
question.

Alan R. Barnard
Sounding & Signing Off in Salem, MO. G'night.


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