A question about hammer construction

[Geoff Sykes]

This afternoon, after store hours, I asked a salesman at the store I work at
one day a week about the way he describes hammer construction and
performance to his customers. Basically he is telling customers that the
colored section next to the wood is a second layer that makes the hammer
harder, (or whatever), and that the multiple layered hammers perform better,
last longer and are subsequently more expensive and therefore only found on
pianos that cost a little more. Single layer hammers, (solid white), on the
other hand, are softer, don't perform as well and wear out quicker.
 
I shared with him that I seem to remember "learning" somewhere that the
colored section was, functionally, simply that. A colored section. That the
coloring of that section was used to identify hammers made to certain
specifications and/or for certain buyers. Also, that hammers with that
colored layer were only found in pianos whose manufacturers went to the
trouble to actually define those characteristics to the hammer manufacturer.

 
The fact that the colored layer hammers are only found in the slightly more
expensive better made pianos is a given. As is the fact that the colored
layer also usually indicates a higher quality hammer. My conversation with
this salesman was not an argument. I was just curious and was hoping to
learn something. But at the end of our conversation we both had the same
questions:
 
: Is that colored section actually a second layer? (We could not tell by
feeling it.)
: Is that colored section, or second layer, actually functionally different
than the rest of the hammer? 
: In other words, does it actually do more than merely act as an identifier
for the characteristics of that hammer?
 
The way he describes hammers to the customer probably doesn't require
change. Simplifying things for the average customer is not necessarily a bad
thing. We just want to know for ourselves. 
 
-- Geoff Sykes
-- Assoc. Los Angeles
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