[pianotech] Tuning lever

[Allen Wright]

David,

Having tried my good friend David B's Fujian (albeit briefly), as  
well as Rick Ohlendorf's, I had the feeling that the Fujian may be a  
tad stiffer - and I believe objectively this is acknowledged to be  
the case, isn't it? -  that the tube affords more stiffness. But it's  
a matter of degrees, and my Faulk lever is so profoundly better than  
my old (although very beautiful) Keith Bowman Renner hammer, that I'm  
not too concerned if it has a little less stiffness. It feels and  
works wonderfully.

Part of my reason for choosing the Faulk at the time was aesthetics.  
I liked the beautiful wood handle in combination with the sexy black  
carbon fiber shaft! I also liked the esoteric sound of the name  
"Carpathian Elm"  : ) The latest Faulks have an aluminum tube around  
the CF, as you probably know.

Hope this is helpful.

Allen


On Aug 4, 2010, at 9:23 PM, Porritt, David wrote:

> David:
>
> Since you have a Fujan as I do, I'd be interested in your view of  
> the Faulk CF lever.  My Fujan dates back to the aluminum tube model  
> so I have been interested in the CF lever but they now are quite  
> expensive.  The Faulk is considerably less but I have wondered  
> about the stiffness since the tube is much smaller than on the  
> Fujan.  The stiffness is my favorite part of the Fujan.  Any  
> observations of the Faulk would be appreciated.
>
> dave
>
> David M. Porritt, RPT
> dporritt at smu.edu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org]  
> On Behalf Of David Boyce
> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 3:18 PM
> To: pianotech at ptg.org
> Subject: Re: [pianotech] Tom Driscoll CF tuning lever
>
>   Isn't it good that there has been this "great leap forward" with the
> principal tool of our trade.  I bought a Fujan three years ago, and  
> love
> it. And Allen Wright was so kind as to let me try out his Faulk CF  
> lever
> (and he tried my Fujan).  They're both so good, and it's great now to
> have a third model on the market.  Perhaps CF will become the  
> generally
> accepted standard for tuning levers, and heavy steel shafts may die
> out!  It's excellent that, even if piano manufacturing is much  
> dminished
> in the UK and the USA, people are still putting careful thought  
> towards
> innovating the tools of our trade.
>
> Best regards,
>
> David Boyce