A question about hammer construction

[Erwinspiano at aol.com]

Hi Geoff.
   Good response to your associate by the way. 
   There is so much Myth about hammer construction it  sometimes boggles my 
mind. The colored under felt as Bill points out is just a  way to designate 
hammers or make them ....pretty.  It isn't a harder or  softer felt just colored 
& separate.  The  other coloring is or was at one time a stiffner or a moth 
proofing agent. In  formerly colored area & in Less stiff/hard  hammers I 
routinely  add 3 or 4 to 1 lacquer solutions in  acetone to beef that area up &  
give the felt higher up, a foundation to push against, instead of absorbing  
enrgy.  Sort of like the foundation of a house.  This way it actually  contributes 
something Instead of being just dead weight along for the  ride.  
  BTW adding under felt actually diminishes resilience  because the top felt 
is bent & compressed less completely around the  molding.  Hammer without it  
are  not inferior or cheaper necessarily, but it is an extra step to  include 
the felt & a bit more fussy in the pressing operation.   IE. the U.felt 
sometime wants to slide around under pressure. The  under felt is more of a device 
to resist the Molding cutting in to the top  felt.  Nothing lost particularly 
if a bit of cutting in the under felt  happens.
 Remember we don not want maximum resilience in a hammer  as the 
advertisements for various makers would have you believe. We need limited  resilience.  
This is our medium in which we can work,voice & create  tone. On an imaginary 
felt/hammer/ stiffness scale of 1 to 10 , hammers in  the 4 to 8 range are 
desirable & the extremes are not.
  As to layers the felt sheet is a homogeneous mass and we  put way to much 
thought into layering as a concept.JMO. I shape hammers &  cut thru the 
proverbial layers all the time on every set & it is not  detrimental to the tone but 
an enhancement.  WHen the strike point is well  defined I also experience a 
more defined & clear tone.
   However,There is a tufting of the felt as we file  & we all experience 
this but the fibers can usually be cleaned up &  fiber be made to behave & lay 
down by sanding with finer & finer grades  of paper. I usually end up at 4 to 6 
hundred grit. 
   The idea that cutting thru layers some how  diminishes the tension & 
compression aspect or component of the hammers  construction just doesn't bear 
itself out in day to day practice & is  verifiable by certain experiments 
inflicted in the hammer. Ie. sanding  a  hammer into any or odd shapes or making 
fairly deep razor cuts directly into the  shoulder & then listening to the sound 
before & after the cut.   You all suspected I was a twisted sort now it's 
confirmed.  But  this is the way we learn stuff.
  Cheers Geoff
  Dale

This afternoon, after  store hours, I asked a salesman at the store I work at 
one day a week  about the way he describes hammer construction and 
performance to his  customers. Basically he is telling customers that the colored 
section next to  the wood is a second layer that makes the hammer harder, (or 
whatever), and  that the multiple layered hammers perform better, last longer  and 
are subsequently more expensive and therefore only found on  pianos that cost a 
little more. Single layer hammers, (solid white), on  the other hand, are 
softer, don't perform as well and wear out  quicker.
 
I shared with him that I  seem to remember "learning" somewhere that the 
colored section was,  functionally, simply that. A colored section. That the 
coloring of that  section was used to identify hammers made to certain 
specifications and/or for  certain buyers. Also, that hammers with that colored layer were 
only found  in pianos whose manufacturers went to the trouble to actually 
define  those characteristics to the hammer manufacturer. 
 
The fact that the colored  layer hammers are only found in the slightly more 
expensive better  made pianos is a given. As is the fact that the colored 
layer also  usually indicates a higher quality hammer. My conversation with this 
salesman  was not an argument. I was just curious and was hoping to learn 
something. But  at the end of our conversation we both had the same  questions:
 
: Is that colored section actually a  second layer? (We could not tell by 
feeling it.)
: Is that colored  section, or second layer, actually functionally different 
than the rest of the  hammer? 
: In other words, does it  actually do more than merely act as an identifier 
for the characteristics of  that hammer?
 
The way he describes  hammers to the customer probably doesn't require 
change. Simplifying  things for the average customer is not necessarily a bad thing. 
We just want  to know for ourselves. 
 
-- Geoff  Sykes
-- Assoc. Los  Angeles



 
 
Dale Erwin--Piano Restorations
4721 Parker  rd
Modesto, Ca. 95357
Shop 209-577-8397
Web site _http://www.Erwinspiano.com_ (http://www.erwinspiano.com/)  
Restoration & Sales of
Steinway &  Sons & other fine pianos.
" Soundboards by  Design"




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