Role of the Staple on a hammer

[John Ross]

I ran into a piano today, that had a separation of the felt from the wood, 
in over a dozen hammers.
When you looked at the hammer you could see a staple. But when you checked 
the separated hammer, you could see that the staple, was for show only, as 
it was not long enough to be anywhere near the wood.
They went to all the trouble, of inserting a staple, just for show.
Now that is deception.
Over the years I have noticed this problem, on this brand of piano. It was a 
Mason & Risch apartment size piano.
John Ross
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>
To: "'Pianotech List'" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 11:50 PM
Subject: Role of the Staple on a hammer


An older subject but I've been meaning to comment on this.  A few things
have been written about whether the staple is necessary to secure the glue
joint on a hammer.  While I do agree that the glue does most (if not all) of
the work holding the felt to the molding, I think the staple does play a
role in maintaining the overall tension in the felt.  Hammers without
staples must resort to reinforcers (which I have done on occasion) or some
application of heat to stabilize this region.  I think the use of heat to
create stability has a potential downside in that too much will simply
remove tension from the felt rather than reinforce this area in any
particular way.  For that reason, I'm not yet ready to abandon the use of
the staple.

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net
www.davidlovepianos.com




John M.Ross
Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada.