Julia - The best way to steam voice hammers is the Roger Jolly method. He has published articles in the PTG Journal describing the method - he has also lectured on the subject. I don't know what issue has the article - maybe someone else knows. The method is basically as follows: Cut several maybe 3" by 12" pieces of cotton material - like bedsheets. Dampen them. Lay the damp material over the hammer strike points. Take a hot iron with the brass ironing caul (Pianotek sells them) and iron the damp material with the hammer underneath. The hot hammer instantly heats the water in the cotton and turns it to steam and applies it directly to the hammer. One needs to experiment a bit at first to learn how hot to make the iron and how much water to put on the material. Once you get that down the process is extremely fast, effective and controllable. You can reverse the process by dry ironing the hammers. I use this method almost exclusively when doing extreme voicing (turning NASTY hammers into something resembling a piano hammer). If the hammer is properly glued, it will not cause any problems. I've never had a hammer come unglued, and I've done this hundreds of times. Terry Farrell On Sep 15, 2009, at 9:56 AM, KeyKat88 at aol.com wrote: > Greetings Will, > > No, I have never tried steaming them. What do you use, a > clothes/vallet steamer? Hot rag? > Won't steaming them cause them to unglue/unravel? > > Thanks > Julia Gottshall > Reading, PA > > In a message dated 9/11/2009 3:25:22 AM Eastern Standard Time, wimblees at aol.com > writes: > Julia > > Have you tried steam voicing these hammers? It's amazing how soft > you can get them. > > Willem (Wim) Blees, RPT > Piano Tuner/Technician > Mililani, Oahu, HI > 808-349-2943 > Author of: > The Business of Piano Tuning > available from Potter Press > www.pianotuning.com > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20090915/4d5e0e20/attachment-0001.htm>
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