Steam treating hard hammers

[A440A at aol.com]

Wayne writes: 
<< 
I just treated the strike point with steam, maybe I should try the shoulders
also. Wayne >>

Greetings, 
    Maybe you should start with the shoulders.  Steam releases fibers, which 
if overdone on the crown will often ruin the hammer.  If you turn the 
shoulders into marshmallows,  you can often get a needle into the compression zone 
under the strike point and actually create some resilience. 
    Steaming the strike point can leave you with a layers of totally dead 
felt over a rock.  I have had good luck with steaming the shoulders first, then 
seeing what the needles found deeper in the hammer.  If there is no resilience 
created by relaxing some of the compression, there will be very poor tone and 
a very short time before the hammers sounds harsh, again. 
Regards, 



Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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