Hammer flange rail cloth - Steinway -Reply

[BobDavis88@aol.com]

from Keith McGavern:
>  Interestingly enough, I have never seen a rail cloth on the wippen
>  rail.  Must be more to this hammer rail cloth than just the expansion and
>  contraction of the flange itself.  Must be another purpose intended
>  altogether.

Long ago (long enough I can't remember who), someone at Steinway told me it
was to act as a shock absorber between the vibrating hammer shank and the
rail, thereby reducing the noise transfer into the metal hammer rail. That's
why it's not needed on the repetition rail -- the moving repetition doesn't
create the kind of noise that the hammer/shank does.

The cloth does make it a little easier to "cheat" the hammers into spacing,
but I've found it better to cross-paper the spacing and not rely on forcing
the flange, because while it takes longer, it holds up better.

Bob Davis, RPT