Hammer softening

[Avery Todd]

Sorry, it's not worth the risk to me! See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol

Especially scroll on down to the bottom to "Health and Safety".

Avery Todd

On 10/2/07, Michael Kurta <mkurta at roadrunner.com> wrote:
>
>      Hi Gary:
>     This is a direct quote from the Baldwin service manual:
>     "For a Softer Tone:  A mixture of 25% water and 75% methanol can be
> applied to the hammers to produce a mellower tone in Baldwin hammers.  Care
> should be taken not to apply to stapled areas.  The solution can be applied
> to the shoulders for moderate changes or to the strike point for more severe
> changes.  It is recommended in most cases not to apply the solution to the
> top octave and lowest octave since these areas usually require more tone
> accentuation to be musically pleasing.  It takes about 20-30 minutes for the
> solution to work.  Fine voicing can then be performed with shallow needling
> to the hammers as needed to provide a consistent note to note tone."
>     I've used this solution for years and found it to work well.
> Methanol BTW, is non-permanent anti-freeze and can sometimes be found at
> farm supply stores.  Its also found in windshield washer fluid, but I'm not
> sure what else is in there and the proportion of water to methanol.
>
>     Mike Kurta, Syracuse chapter
>     Mike Kurta, Syracuse chapter
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech/attachments/20071002/71aaef07/attachment.html