Dale S. Erwin www.Erwinspiano.com Custom piano restoration Ronsen piano hammers-sales R & D and tech support Sitka soundboard panels 209-577-8397 209-985-0990 David wrote I'm delighted to see the recent move away from so much hot pressing of hammers. (although I haven't seen such a move in this respect on the part of manufacturers yet..) It's simply a return towards our cold pressed piano making roots. The obsession with power tends to blank out the more intimate and beautiful pianissimo ranges of the piano. You CAN have it both ways! That is so right David. I believe that the evolution a way from cold pressed hammers came not as a cultural thing but a manufacturing expedient to cut cost in voicing at the factory. And we can have it both ways with cold pressed hammers!! My friend Andre Oorebek says he like a nice hard top or crown to start with or he considers the hammer too soft. I understand this position especially when voicing in larger venues and for his style of voicing, and he is very good at it. After working with cold pressed hammers for many year now I finally came to the conclusion that it is only the very 1 or 2 mm of the top crown that need stiffening. In spite of the fact that cold pressing or warm pressing stretches the outside of the hammer felt a great deal it often initially produces at tone that strike the ear as mellow or too soft leading the listener/tech. to think it is the entire hammer that needs densifying in some way, and to me this is where the mistake is made many times with cold pressed hammers and they are lacquered beyond recognition. If the hammers are allowed to play in the top will pack and become firmer and resemble the same density directly under neath the crown and the tone will bloom and be incredibly stable. In the event more bite or attack is needed sooner for the impatient, I discovered that by simply adding 3 to 6 drops of dilute lac and acetone to the crown immediately makes everybody happy. A 10 or 15 to 1 solotuion. I call this break in solution or play in solution. It does not compromise the integrity of the under lying felt. The hot pressed hammer amkers IMO are responding to the top 2 mm of felt being not hard enough by densifying the entire hammers felt integrity and frustrating my friend Nick Gravagne and many others this week. For what its worth. David Stanwood "The art in hammer making has ever been to obtain a solid, firm foundation, graduating in softness and elasticity toward the top surface, which latter has to be silky and elastic in order to produce a mild, soft tone for pianissimo playing, but with sufficient resistance back of it to permit the hard blow of fortissimo playing." - Alfred Dolge >PAULREVENKOJONES at aol.com wrote: >Interesting that. I've been using a variety of hammers over the years to >"stabilize" the felt after needling. Everything from small peens to the >pointy end of upholsterer's tack hammers. It's incredibly fast >and >long-lasting. >Paul -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100929/7573a1a8/attachment-0001.htm>
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