Nick asks:
>>Do you think that "relaxing" the shoulders via steam simply eases the internal tension / compression forces, or does the process take it further in that the internal forces are rendered more or less overly relieved and superfluous?<
I think the heat and moisture cause the fibers to relax their curl and the cumulative effect is, at least in my imagination, that the internal compression is allowed to expand the felt across the whole hammer. I have seen some "grow' when steamed. I believe that it is critical that the felt right above the core, way down in the bottom of the felt, be as hard as a rock,but only for a mm or so before the gradual relaxation begins above. Steam is a safe way to do that. It does not create a "new hammer" sound out of worn out felt, but it can certainly make profound improvement over factory stock that may never have seen a needle.
>>RE steaming hammers, but not from you (I don't think). Could I prevail upon you to add a bit more explanation as to:
1) wringing out in the flannel strip
2) dimensions of flannel strip and placement prior to ironing
3) what kind of iron and heat setting you recommend
4) what constitutes a '"fast pass" of the iron
5) do you position flannel and iron immediately, or let soak for a minute (man!)?
I have several strips of flannel, the widest is 1" wide, the smaller is about 1/2" (13mm) wide. They are about 24-30" long. I soak them then ball them up in my hand and squeeze as hard as I can. The iron, a small 1950's era GE with a Bakelite dial, is set to the high side of "wool". It sizzles when you touch it.
If the hammers are untouched rocks from the East, I will lay the wide strip lengthwise over a whole section, covering the proximal shoulders from 9:00 to just barely reaching the strike line. I don't wait before ironing, since I don't want a lot of moisture to take up residence in the felt. The speed of the iron isn't closely measurable,but a 30 hammer section shouldn't take more than 3-4 seconds. I just want to loosen up the outer skin and take pressure out of at least the top half of the hammer, so rather than really heating them up, I just hit them with a puff of steam and see what changes.. Then I do the distal shoulder.
This is often enough to completely alter the sound. You may see some cupping,depending on the maker, age, and previous treatment. I then play some FFF on the piano, listening for that distorted crackle behind the attack. If still there, I may go another low shoulder pass on both sides, or, depending on what the felt feels like under my fingernail, do a heavy steam,(slower iron, damper cloth), on the low shoulders, or a lighter one higher up.
Sometimes all this does nothing. which is when I lay athin strip right across the crowns and slide the iron across them too.Things can get pretty exciting at this point.Tone changes in a hurry. I avoid steaming the crown first so that the most extreme tearing action is happening away from the strike point,which I think profits from the least damaged fiber. I know that too much localized needling in one area of these hard hammers will cause the tension to tear big holes in the hammer felt, so I think the steam should first reduce the compression evenly farther away from the center of it all.
Hammers can, if given too much steam, dang near explode. They just swell up in huge lumps. I never figured out how to get much out of them after that.
It helps to steam lots of hammers for practice in non-critcal situations, like right before you take them off.....
and it is best to leave them more mellow than perfect. Things are going to dry out, which brightens the sound and the felt won't be as resilient and will brighten up quicker,etc.
Hope that helps,
Ed Foote RPT
I don't wish to remove the power, but to create as broad a dynamic range as the belly and hammers can give. My plan is to "break the code" on several hammers with needles. But if that code requires dozens of stitches per hammer, than I will consider plan B ------ steaming, or whatever else, and refine with needles as you suggest.
I will practice on some spare hammers.
Thanks again, Ed.
And thanks to all who have contributed to this discussion.
Nick
On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 2:23 PM, Ed Foote <a440a at aol.com> wrote:
Dale says:
Yes & then the hammer maker becomes the scape goat. How grossly unfair.!!!!
But the turkey will continue to be stuffed until hammer sampling becomes common place....in another 20 or 30 years? hope not.
There are a bunch a smart guys in our business & on this list who are figuring it out.
I know what I like, and it is getting harder to sell. The younger students all seem to gravitate to the brassiest pianos. When the Yamahas were replaced by some rebuilt STeinways, the immediate complaint was that they had "weak actions". I took this with a grain, since as I walked up to the small practice room, I find the student playing FFF with the lid all the way up. How am I going to sell a nice, round, full-bodied hammer to him? He and others prefer the brightest piano that can be found, and I wonder what sort of conversations they are having with their teacher inre "tone". I don't know if I need another battlefront around the school.......
Private customers usually are real happy to hear that their GHRKX-44 or whatever can be mellowed out. On the majority of actions from the Asian area of the last 20 of so years, I don't bother with needles. Steam goes so fast, so evenly, and so easily, that my needles are never first choice on this genre of piano. It is common to probe a little to even things out, and some of the bass breaks need a pretty deep treatment, so I do use the pins, but not to begin with. The steamed shoulders usually allow needles to move in a much more dignified manner, too.
I use a strip of flannel with a fast pass of the iron and these calcified mallets start behaving like the sheep they are.
Regards,
Ed Foote RPT
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
--
Nick Gravagne, RPT
AST Mechanical Engineering
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