Hammer softening

[Gary Fluke]

Ron,

Now we seem to be getting to the bottom of this.  Yes, the felt just sucked 
up the solution like crazy.


Gary

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Nossaman" <rnossaman at cox.net>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: Hammer softening


>
>> Thanks for pointing out that this subject has been thoroughly discussed 
>> on the list.  However, my search of the archives, which I felt was rather 
>> exhaustive, did not come up with much about hammer softening at all.
>>
>> Gary Fluke
>
> Not hammer softening, though it has come up, but rather the fact that a 
> less toxic alcohol than methanol works just as well. The alcohol is just a 
> wetting agent, breaking the water's surface tension and allowing it to 
> penetrate the hammer felt or bushing cloth. The water does the actual 
> work, which is why steam also works well for softening hammers, and 
> incidentally more controllably.
> Ron N
>