My question is about fabric softener? Could one soak the cloth with water treated with fabric softener and get even better and faster results. Or could you directly put water treated with fabric softener on the hammer and steam voice. How much softer could be used?I am always trying new ways and have heard of treating with fabric softer alone but have never tried.Must be I have had so good luck with steam. I did the fabric softener thing once, and didn't like it. I didn't really hear that much difference in the tone, and it turned the hammers blue. Steam voicing is much more effective. You have much more control over how much you want to change the tone, and if you've done too much, it's reversible. But the most important reason I like steam voicing, is it doesn't change the hammers a different color. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Sigurd Hanson <throan at gmail.com> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Sun, Sep 5, 2010 9:52 am Subject: [pianotech] Steam Voicing & Fabric Softner? On Friday I stopped by at a piano store and a blind piano tuner friend just got through tuning a Sojin upright. The piano needed the hammers shaped and voice but we knew the dealer wouldn't go for it so I suggested to the salesmen and tuner to steam voice. The tuner mostly does concert tunings and voices pianos at the highest standards so hasn't ever considered steam voicing. He has heard of steam voicing though. I do it on a lot of pianos except very expensive pianos and have had good luck. Most of the groves go away and they look great unless the piano should really have new hammers. I use a cotton hankie or some old cotton underwear cloth and soak in water and wring out by hand and place over the hammer head with about three or four thickness of cloth. I use a 80 watt voicing iron and touch each hammer until the steam quits. You can use a 40 watt iron but you have to stop more times to get it to heat up to produce steam. Some hammers may need more than one pass. When you get through you can touch up some of the hammers the conventional way. I spent with the blind tuner about 15 minutes and the salesmen was very happy with the results as he now had a sellable piano. My question is about fabric softener? Could one soak the cloth with water treated with fabric softener and get even better and faster results. Or could you directly put water treated with fabric softener on the hammer and steam voice. How much softer could be used?I am always trying new ways and have heard of treating with fabric softer alone but have never tried.Must be I have had so good luck with steam. I don't like using needles unless I have plenty of time to do the job. Takes time replacing broken and dull needles and once in a while I draw blood and my hand hurts from the constant repeation. Hint:if you light up a match and heat the needles and they will not break as much but they will bend with very hard felt. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5425 (20100905) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100905/7530ca28/attachment.htm>
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