Hammer steaming

[stanwood]

Ron wrote:

>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?

Re clogging: In this case I'm commenting on the comments of comments of
others. I've never used fabric softener.  I do know that anything added to
felt will degrade it's ability to work, and felt has a great capacity to
work in spite of all the tortures we put it through.  Perhaps the problems
that someone had with fabric softener were in a situation that was already
pushing the felt to the limits, and the fabric softener was the straw that
broke the camels back.  It's hard to say.  I'd stay away from additives such
as river muck.  Who knows whats in that stuff!

>we need an efficient means of communicating water
>in hard-pressed wool -- soapy solutions do that well.

Steam does it best and without adding anything that stays in the felt.
A small amount of water added to a large amount of alcohol works too.  Heat
up the solution and soak the hammers with it.  Allow to dry over night.


Stanwood