Alcohol and hard hammers

[Farrell]

MessageFWIW, I, as well as many others, have been using Roger's steam method for years and it works like a gem. So fast, so easy, so effective.

Terry Farrell
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Geoff Sykes 
  To: 'Pianotech List' 
  Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 1:45 PM
  Subject: RE: Alcohol and hard hammers


  Hi Roger --

  Having the Journal CD's I found your article on Controllable Steam Voicing in the May 1999 Journal. After reading it I'm going to abandon the tea kettle idea and invest in a voicing iron like you describe. The method you describe is both easy and controllable. And it's grace over brute force. I like it. Thank you for your contribution to this question. 

  -- Geoff Sykes
  -- Assoc. Los Angeles


    -----Original Message-----
    From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Roger Jolly
    Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 8:04 AM
    To: Pianotech List
    Subject: RE: Alcohol and hard hammers


    Hi Geoff,
                        I DO NOT  advise using a steam kettle, one of my reasons for writing the article in the Journal, a few years ago, was that there is very little control, and very inconsistent results.
    Give me you address off list and I will send you a reprint copy.
    Alcohol and water tends to deform the hammer shape and you can very quickly ruin a set of hammers, unless you have some voicing experience.
    If you do not have an electric voicing iron, you can get the same results using the tip of a clothes iron, it's just a little more difficult to work with.
    Regards Roger



    At 11:55 PM 9/14/2006, you wrote:

      Of course! I'd forgotten about the vice-grip trick. But wait, there's more. I'm so glad that this list has an archive. After reading Alan's reply I did a search on both vice grip voicing and steam voicing and was rewarded with some very informative and helpful ideas. Including the suggestion of an 8 to 1 alcohol to fabric softener treatment from 1995. Steaming the hammer, quickly, was the all around preferred method of dealing with extraordinarily hard hammers. I think I'll pick up a little electric tea kettle on my way in tomorrow morning and give steam a chance first before resorting to the vice grip method. I almost feel like I'm about to perform a magic trick.
       
      Thanks to all --
       
      -- Geoff Sykes
      -- Assoc. Los Angeles
       
       

        -----Original Message-----

        From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [ mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Alan R. Barnard

        Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:28 PM

        To: pianotech at ptg.org

        Subject: RE: Alcohol and hard hammers


        I'd be leaping on those puppies with my modified Vice-grips (a la Wally Brooks) followed by a lightly damp rag and the back side of my voicing iron, i.e., steam.


        The needle-in-a-Dremmel works well.


        I'd try all those things before spending a day trying to, as one put it, "split hickory knots using a corn dodger as a wedge and a pumpkin for a mallet."


        A quote for Texans: "The universal food of the people of Texas, both rich and poor, seems to be corn-dodger and fried bacon."  Frederick Law Olmsted, 'A Journey Through Texas' (1856)


        Alan Barnard

        Salem, MO

        Joshua 24:15







------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Original message

        From: "Geoff Sykes" 

        To: "Pianotech at Ptg. Org" 

        Received: 09/14/2006 8:09:38 PM

        Subject: Alcohol and hard hammers


        Tomorrow I have to go up against a new, out of the box, upright piano with ROCK hard hammers. I have been asked to voice the hammers down significantly in order to reduce the unpleasant brittle harsh cold sound. Last time I had to do this I just aggressively needled away for a long time. Very aggressively with lots of broken needles. Even after I was "finished" I was still unable to get a needle in more than about 1mm. 


          
        Not too long ago, on the list, I read that treating hard hammers with a little alcohol would help un-compact the felt. However, these are new hammers and are probably hard because of a hardening treatment. Today's question is: Would a small alcohol treatment help? If not, what would you suggest?


          
        -- Geoff Sykes

        -- Assoc. Los Angeles
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060915/d312bc26/attachment.html