[CAUT] lacquer

[Fred Sturm]

On 6/16/06 2:11 PM, "Donald McKechnie" <dmckech at ithaca.edu> wrote:

> List,
> 
> I just had a look at the gallon of lacquer I received from the good folks at
> Steinway two weeks ago. It is the good stuff! I was at the factory damper
> seminar and had a great discussion with Eric, Chad and Michael about their
> lacquer and other things.
> 
I was at Steinway in April, and we had lunch with a factory guy involved in
the new process of pre-lacquering hammers (all hammer sets are now dipped
prior to being sliced. In part this is to facilitate an even slicing job, in
part to standardize the beginning state of all hammers and eliminate the
variability of what is done later). He (the name slipped immediately from my
mind, though his face I can recall with no problem) told us something quite
interesting: that Steinway had changed lacquer suppliers within the last
year (because the ³water white² from the previous supplier was too yellow ­
note that the hammer guys take their lacquer from the case finishing folks,
it is not ordered specifically for hammers from what they tell me), and the
hammer lacquering folks weren¹t aware of it. Changed from 12% solids to 24%.
Once they found out, they changed from 3:1 to 5 or 6:1 dilution. (Obviously
there was an intermediate period where hammers had ³double strength²
lacquer. I asked. He didn¹t want to talk about it and was evasive).
    Going back to Debra¹s question, nitrocellulose can be found in a few
places (as pointed out by several), though ³water white² is quite hard to
come by. I was quoted, I think, $30 - $40 per gallon, minimum four gallon
case, special order, from my local Sherwin Williams ³Industrial² store. The
regular ³retail² SW stores never heard of lacquer, let alone nitro. And the
industrial couldn¹t find water white either (standard clear was no problem),
until I gave them the specific number I think I got a couple years ago from
a post from Charles Ball (on caut list, check archives). But I believe that
is purely an aesthetic thing. I hear no tonal difference using ³off the
shelf² clear gloss (Kadallac is the brand I have available), and the yellow
tint is barely noticeable. I have never experimented with acrylic. I have
theorized it would be more ³plastic² and less brittle, hence would behave
differently in response to needling. But that¹s just theorizing. Sounds like
others have found little difference there, either. Acrylic and nitro do use
different thinners in some formulations. Generic lacquer thinner doesn¹t
work for the acrylic black lacquer I use in case touch up.
Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico



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