Bechstein B hammer rake / more thoughts

[Richard Brekne]

I suppose its a ball park figure that works reasonable well enough on 
enough pianos that it gets shuffled around enough til it becomes 
accepted as a norm. Still seems usable enough if one modifies it just a 
tad to bring the shank into the same plane as the string. No doubt there 
are times when this wont work either...  but it seems like one gets just 
a bit closer.

I haven't got this clear in my mind yet however, as I've just always 
taken it on faith that the horizontal shank at impact with a hammer 
perpendicular to the shank was more then good enough in nearly all 
cases. Clearly any change in bore length needs to be looked at closely 
with regards to what impact it will have on regulation. In this case I 
increased bore length from the existing by about 3 mm. This worked out 
both by the advice I got from my two buds down on the continent, and by 
more empirical based checks on the action.  Hints that were obvious... 
turned up drop screws and let off buttons with nearly no room left 
between the tops of the buttons and the underside of the rail.

Cheers
RicB


    That sounds to me like a good description of fudging from start to
    finish.  Heaven knows where this superstition concerning the
    horizontal shank at impact arose, but there is no scientific basis
    for it any more than there is any science behind the downward rake
    of the hammer on the old Steinway uprights.  The angle of the shank
    at impact, whether on a grand or an upright, is determined by the
    geometry of the whole set-up, which was generally carefully worked
    out to reduce the entrance height or (on an upright) the case depth
    to a minimum.  The majority of grands I have worked on are designed
    to have the shank exceed the horizontal and the hammers bored
    accordingly.

    JD