[CAUT] Shellac Voicing

[David Love]

I disagree about the lacquer.  One of the nice things about lacquer finishes
is that it does continue to harden over time.  Not sure if your thumbnail
imprint is because the lacquer is soft or the wood underneath it is.  In
hammers the lacquer tend to get harder as time goes on especially over the
first several weeks.  Best to wait for second applications if possible.

And not to be picky, but Abel Naturals are an excellent choice depending on
the instrument.  The can be too hard (less likely they are too soft)
depending on the design and condition of the instrument.  I don't agree with
a one hammer fits all approach so sometimes it's a good choice and sometimes
a bad choice depending on the tonal requirements and goal.  In this case I
don't think he identified the instrument, did he? 

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Dan
Rembold
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2009 6:52 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Shellac Voicing

Hi Andrew,

Abel Naturals are an excellent choice for a replacement hammer, but no my
part I have not yet had to add power to a new set; quite the contrary. 

I'm just wondering, are there just a few notes that sound like they need to
be brought up, or the entire piano?  What brand of piano is it, and how old?
On the last Hamburg Steinway O that I used the Abels on, I found that once I
needled down the sections that had extra noise, the entire piano had more
power.  My guess is that more power was going into tone production, less
into unwanted noise.  No hardening was needed in that case.

Also, on your premise that lacquer continues to harden over the life of the
hammer, I would tend to disagree.  The apparent continuing hardness must be
coming from something else, since lacquer doesn't harden over time.  I've
been spraying nitrocellulose off and on for 30 years, and I can still make
an impress into lacquer finishes I did years ago, with just a thumbnail.  I
may be off by transferring that idea to hammers, but that's my observation.

No matter what you choose to use--shellac, lacquer or acetone-based--where
you place the solution into the hammer will have the most effect on tone.
If you do use shellac, the off-the-shelf prepackaged kind is never
consistent--you can get flakes from woodworker.com pretty reasonable.  The
dedicated shellac thinner is probably best too, since paint-store varieties
of denatured alcohol are all various blends of kerosene, naptha, gasoline,
and who knows what else.

Let us know how it works out.
Dan Rembold
Auburn University

--- On Mon, 11/23/09, Andrew Anderson <andrew at andersonmusic.com> wrote:

> From: Andrew Anderson <andrew at andersonmusic.com>
> Subject: [CAUT] Shellac Voicing
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Date: Monday, November 23, 2009, 8:37 AM
> I'm looking at using shellac on some
> Abel Naturals that a client is getting impatient waiting for
> play-in on.   I have Zinser spray cans
> available locally.  How much should I dilute this for a
> subtle reinforcement?  Is there a choice in diluting
> solutions?
> 
> I'd like to stay away from lacquer because of its tendency
> to continue hardening over the lifetime of the hammers.
> 
> Thanks,
> Andrew Anderson
>