shank strike weights

[Barbara Richmond]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon Page" <jonpage@comcast.net>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 6:49 PM
Subject: shank strike weights


snip

> I've been doing this for ten years now. I weigh a set of shanks and
> separate them into
> piles to the tenth of a gram.  I have to only alter about 12 on a set once
> they are hung.
>
> I take measuring the shanks a step further...
> I measure the height of the knuckle with a spring loaded thickness gage.
> The shanks are
> uniform but the degree to which the knuckle has been pressed varies. So
> each pile is
> broken down into low, medium and high; or average height, +.005
> (high), -.005 (low)
> and set aside any beyond that. That leaves me with a window of .010.
>
> So during the process of shank selection, I'll group similar knuckle
> heights together.
> It makes a noticeable difference which is visible in a more even LetOff
> button placement.
> -- 

Jon,

I understand the business of separating the shanks by SW.  So you make
sub-groups of the shanks by measuring the knuckle.  What is the benefit or
what <is> the noticeable difference of measuring the knuckle, besides making
the let off buttons nice and even and look good?   Does it feel better?

If you group by weight, then by knuckle size, about how many shanks do you
end up within a group of similar knuckle size before you have to change to
the next one?

Or, maybe you write the SW measurement on the shank and then group by
knuckle size??  Do you progress from high in the bass to low in the treble,
or does it depend how much you're having to remove from the hammers to get
the your target SW to achieve the balance weight you want?

Barbara Richmond, RPT