[CAUT] grand knuckles

[Porritt, David]

Dan:

You can bolster them if the buckskin is loose.  Pull some flange bushing cloth through where it's loose.  If it is the buckskin that is wearing and hard or slick, I have used a suede brush on them.  Also put some micro-fine Teflon powder on the buckskin.

dp

David M. Porritt, RPT
dporritt at smu.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Dan Rembold
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 12:52 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] grand knuckles

List,
I have a Steinway D in our main recital hall that I service, that gets a lot of use.  This piano was rebuilt by another shop about two years ago, and the hammers are holding up well, but the knuckles are already becoming flat and misshapen.  The hammers, shanks, and flanges are Steinway.  It's already to the point that the player can "feel" the jack drag off the front "node" of the knuckle, and getting an exact clean let-off point is hard to do.

I've thought of trying to fluff the knuckles with a brass brush.  Are there some other tips that I could use to extend the knuckle life expentancy until the next hammer change?  Flange centers are still good.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Dan Rembold
Auburn University