Hammer weight

[Vince Mrykalo]

>
>      Let me lay out a few premises, and I'd welcome you-all's comments.
>      Let me start with a generic grand action as it came from it's
>      manufacturer.  The only constants I want to keep for now are the
>      length of the shank, i.e., from the shank center pin to the center
>      line of the hammer, and the speed of the key's motion.
>
>      1. If the mass of the hammer is lowered and the speed of the hammer
>      remains the same, the energy imparted to the string will be lower.
>      Because of the reduced mass the contact time will go down, and the
>      tone will be brighter.  The total inertia of the hammer is lower.
>
>      - Lower hammer mass
>         Brighter tone
>         Less powerful tone
>         Touch weight will be reduced
>         Friction will be reduced
>
>      2. Going back to the original action again, leave the hammers the same
>      but make the knuckles smaller (or you could move them closer to the
>      center pin, but that's kind of hard to do!). Now the mass remains the
>      same but the speed of the hammer will be increased (as long as the
>      pianist can overcome the extra "touch weight"). The inertia of the
>      hammer is increased.

Don, how will the speed of the hammer increase by merely decreasing the
knuckle size?  It doesn't do anything to change the leverage.

>      This may be a bit unrealistic - the pianist will not naturally
>      overcome the increased resistance at the key from the faster leverage.
>      We can fix that in #3 below.
>
>      - Smaller Knuckle
>         No change in brightness
>         More powerful tone
>         Touch weight will be increased
>         Friction will be increased

I also don't see where the friction increases here.  I've decreased knuckle
size and had a decrease in touchweight.

>      I have had similar experiences customizing new pianos with soft
>      hammers right from the factory.  By lightening the hammers and
>      speeding up the ratios the results were a much brighter tone, with a
>      bigger, fuller sound with little or no hardening of the felt.

>      Let me know what you think of this idea of balancing effective mass
>      and velocity to get the inertia needed.
>
>      Don_Mannino@yca.ccmail.compuserve.com
>
>

---
Vince Mrykalo  rpt

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... if you shall seem to some to be a person of importance,
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