Hammer steaming

[Ron Torrella]

On Fri, 26 May 1995, stanwood wrote:

> Barbara wrote:
>
> >What exactly is clogging up the felt?
>
> Filling the spaces in between the fibers that give them room to move
> and flex.

You mean to tell me that in spite of those hammers traveling at upwards
of 70 mph (I could be off a little but they are moving pretty fast) and
crashing into 1-3 strings, the few drops of fabric softener that are put
into the hammers are going to be *so* tenacious as to clog up the hammer
felt like so much Misssippi muck?

> >I've had such wonderful success using softeners--five years here at
> >IWU--and have seen no adverse effects.  The
> >only results have been making previously un-
> >voicable (honky-tonk) hammers produce nice
> >piano tone.
>
> I'm convinced that the active ingredient in fabric softeners is the water.
> Experiment with the steam and use what ever works best for you.

Weren't you just referring to fabric softeners clogging up hammerfelt
(see above)?

I think you're right about the water being the active ingredient.  Seems
like the fabric softener is just the vehicle for getting the water in
amongst the fibers.  I'm thinking specifically along the lines of the
claims of your average woolen cleaners -- Woolite, for example -- that do
not claim to "soften" the articles you are washing.  Their loudest claim
is to "delicately clean without fading or stretching or shrinking."  That
sounds to me like a formula whose solitary purpose is to incorporate
ingredients that will allow the *real* cleaner -- water -- to get in and
out without a lot of agitation.  Since we can't agitate hammers (as if it
would help anyhow!) , we need an efficient means of communicating water
in hard-pressed wool -- soapy solutions do that well.

I'm almost certain that the ingredient that is most crucial is either
sodium lauryl sulfate or dodecyl sulfate.  Since the sodium part tends to
send some folks into catatonic shivers, I stick with dodecyl sulfate.  It
doesn't seem to leave much of a residue behind.  The only drawback is
filing hammers that have this stuff in it.  Makes you a little
uncomfortable -- irritates the nose lining a bit.  A dust mask (that you
should be wearing anyhow on account of all of those fibers floating
around) goes a long way to relieve nasal distress!

Ron Torrella
Registered Piano Technician          Now Open: The Piano Page at Prairienet!
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