Pinning and Tone

[Fred Sturm]

Hi Isaac,
	Interesting photo. I have seen hammers with tails shaped like that, though 
not Steinway. Must be a Hamburg, no? Certainly Renner shanks. You are 
right, the center of that curve does seem to be maybe 0.5-1 cm above the 
shank. It seems like a circle segment, or quite close to one, with a radius 
around 5.5 cm (2 1/4"), maybe increasing slope at the end.
	NYC Steinways of the same era had a more eccentric tail shape, with a very 
slight slope from the end of the felt most of the way down, then a fairly 
sudden shift inward, almost straight, for the last 1-1.5 cm. And deep 
checkering on that lowest segment. That almost flat segment matched the 
angle of the check reasonably well, but the sudden change in direction left 
what I refer to as a bump, which would catch on the check on the way up if 
one tried to get close checking. And the checks were too low, and the tails 
not long enough, but that's another story.
	Current production - at least the D our university got 3 years ago, and 
newer ones I have seen, including those at the factory last week - have a 
profile much more like a segment of a circle, though less curved than in 
your photo.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico

--On Friday, October 31, 2003 11:03 PM +0100 Isaac sur Noos 
<oleg-i@noos.fr> wrote:

> Fred ,
>
> I don't see the radius as a curve, and have not find 2.5 centred on
> the shank to give a very good checking, in fact too round for my
> desire, the checking surface is then too high on the tail or the
> checking is too hard, if the bottom of the tail is used. Then I had to
> reset all the backcheks, so I am not convinced with this process
> (Spurlock instructions)
>
>
> Indeed when looking at Steinway hammers, I see the round part to be
> centred somewhere above the shank, and even then I am not sure (like
> you) it is a pure radius.
>
> I usually prefer doing the tail shaping with the hammers hang and all
> hold together in a special setup (a large gig in steel), then I round
> the tails with a sanding machine and finish by hand.
>
> Talking about checking, for Steinway, I've been said also that low
> checking add power, but high checking give repetition, and checking to
> the highest without the tails rubbing when one pushes firmly on the
> hammer head while testing, give a checking around 14 mm, not less.
>
> On Bechstein hammers the checking can be made really high, then
> probably it is not that good to go too high. On the other hand
> Bechstein action are not optimum, so high checking helps them also .
>
> Here is a pic of 1980 Steinway hammers :  at evidence this is not a
> simple curve, and the centre of the shape is not on the shank.
>
> Any comment appreciated .
>
> Best Regards.