Sanding sealer is lacquer or varnish with mineral soap (zinc stearate) added to help powder the finish when sanded. It's generally less brittle than lacquer or varnish alone when used on wood. Haven't tried it on hammers but I may. DP Dale Probst RPT Registered Piano Technician Ward & Probst, Inc. www.wardprobst.com dale at wardprobst.com -----Original Message----- From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred Sturm Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 8:01 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Hamburg Steinway Hammer Voicing (Up) On Jul 27, 2010, at 8:14 AM, Wiliam Ballard wrote: > The salient feature is probably the flexibility of the resin. (Who > wants a felt fiber coated with something rigid and brittle?) Ed's > suggestion of sanding sealer lacquer probably is the closest we'll > get to this. The top-coat lacquers have been formulated for the > performance on the film under rubbing and polishing by finishers, > with no interest in hop it performs in reinforcing felt piano hammers. > What is sanding sealer? My understanding is that it is simply lacquer with some kind of fine filler material added, to make it easier to sand (doesn't load the paper as much, allows for dry sanding, can remove a lot of material fast to get a smooth surface). So I have assumed that it is really the same stuff, but with an inert material added, like that filler stuff West Systems sells for use with epoxy. The "inert dust" changes the way the lacquer sands, or so I have thought. ANyone know different? I don't think sanding sealer is less brittle and more flexible than lacquer. I would think the opposite if anything - more flex would mean more likelihood of gumming up sandpaper, and it doesn't. When it dries, in hammers, I think it is more likely to "break" because of discontinuity caused by the dust. That is how I have pictured it. If anyone has different information, I'd like to hear it. Regards, Fred Sturm fssturm at unm.edu http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/FredSturm
This PTG archive page provided courtesy of Moy Piano Service, LLC