cost effective CAUT hammer renewal (was hammer re-felting,)

[Mark Cramer]

Yup,

one thing both Isaac and Ed touched on, and Trevor Nelson (Boulder,Co.)
conveyed to me after discussion with Norbert and Helmut Abel in Nashville,
is hammer moldings from North American pianos seem more brittle under the
re-felting process.

This includes European pianos that have spent most of their lives in North
America.

The Abels feel this may be due to continual air-conditioning/dry-heating
cycles here, which are uncommon to most of Western Europe.

Sure appreciate all the research the American Forestry made available on the
subject of wood.

Thanks Otto!

BTW, Denis mentions I just missed you in Banff by several days.  Will you be
around in fall?

Anton Z. had an encounter with an angry female griz. and 2 cubs (up on
Cascade) that made the paper! My feet are still sweating!

best regards,
Mark Cramer,
Brandon University


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces@ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces@ptg.org]On Behalf Of
Otto Keyes
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 2:24 PM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: cost effective CAUT hammer renewal (was hammer re-felting,)


Eons ago when we were still in Chicagoland, seems I remember talking to a
tech. from the USDA Forest Products lab in Wisconsin who said the half-life
of wood is 40 years.  ie:  it loses half its original strength in 40 years.
Not usually a  problem in a house (assuming proper design & construction)
where much of the force is compression, but something like a hammer shank
has entirely different forces at play.  On the other hand, I've seen some
pretty old stuff work remarkably well.  All other things being equal, my
theory is that the environment (& maintenance) in the first few years of a
piano's life seems to make a considerable difference in its longevity.  Any
thoughts?

Otto