Hammer maker's corner

[isaacah]

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ARI ISAAC

Hammer maker's corner.





I thought I'd like to write something about hammers at atime when, as =
Mao Tse Tung said, "let a thousand flowers bloom." there are so many =
theories abroad about hammers, voicing and the like. My twenty plus =
years of hammer making experience, from building the machinery, =
researching the felt, to making the hammers that produce the special =
tone our hammers do produce, may be of interest to some, .



1.=20

It is 1979. I have been running a tuning and piano rebuilding practice =
since 1960. I was getting a bit bored with aspects of that. I'd worked, =
for two years in a piano factory owned by Aeolian which saw to it that =
entire forests of magnificent maple, birch, walnut and spruce were =
liquidated to produce never would be pianos. After I couldn't take that =
any longer I'd started my own practice and there the choice was mine to =
a far greater degree. In 1969 I started making my own, then others' bass =
strings but hammers were a bain. I knew the tone I wanted and I tried =
every hammer available at this time, 1960 to 1978 or so. American, =
German, Asian. none of them made it to my standards. I will not spend =
hours voicing hammers to get the minimum color range I want, I refuse.=20

I was griping about it so much and so frequently that my friend, Tom =
Hathaway, a cool, aristocratic Bostonian somewhat soiled by rubbing =
elbows with the 60s, said one day,

-why don't you make your own hammers? You're crazy enough to do it-.

It was said in a tone of "stop complaining, if you're so unhappy, let's =
see you do something about it".=20

The words stuck, somehow and gradually, fantastically, as it seems now, =
became a challenge. I had, of course, no clear idea how to go about =
making hammers but more and more I wanted to. The thought of translating =
my idea of piano tone, musical tone, to a tangible that music lovers =
could enjoy, partake of my own idea of tone - that was exciting. Just =
maybe I could contribute something gratifying to a few people.=20

I did know I needed a hammer press. Where to start? I found a hammer =
press maker in England who wanted $40000 for a press that, when he sent =
photos, looked like a toy. That one was a no-no, next. I called Marty =
Negron at Ronson, whose hammers I'd used and found wanting, and asked =
him if I could come down, bring my machinist and make drawings of one of =
his hammer presses, just think of the cheak, I can hardly believe it =
myself but, by then I was so taken with the idea that nothing would stop =
me. Marty, the gentleman that he was, said I was crazy to want to make =
hammers, that one went out the other ear immediately but, yes, I could =
come down and take drawings.

I called my then machinist, Dave a Yorkshire pudding and roast beef =
stufed, kindly but slightly ineffectual, affecting an Oxford accent but =
very pleasant Englishman and invited him for a plane trip down to Ronson =
Hammers in the New York Catskills to take drawings of a hammer press.=20


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