cutting damper felt

[Newton Hunt]

Hi All,

The best damper cutting I have ever seen is watching a Yamaha factory
worker gluing on dampers.

He used a flat backed knife, available from Pianotech, to cut the red
underfelt and the white flat and trimming the sides.  That knife was
sharper than commercially available single edged or box cutter utility
blades.

The sharpest knifes are scalpels and they are available from surgical
supply houses and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.  I love
them for bushing keys.

Bill Spurlock makes a holding tool  for cutting damper felts which is
one of the best I have seen.

I use a Ford's cutting tool, I have two guillotine cutters that I don't
use.

I have not trouble with any cutter and the damage it does to felt
because just before I install a damper I have a very fine scissors that
I use to trim the edges off the felt and for cutting off the ends of
trichords as needed.  This is the Bosendorfer way I learned and it works
great.

I run a line on one edge of the trip felt before cutting so I always
know the orientation of the felt relative to the wire.  This helps
prevent seating problems later.

I also get and use Steinway cut damper felts because they are good
quality and they work very well.  I also use flats and strips from other
sources, especially Yamaha.  Their cut flat felts are great..

Cutting is NOT the problem, I could use any cutting tool.  The problem
stems from trimming and properly seating the dampers.  It is my practice
to install one damper at a time, make it work as perfectly as I can
before going on to the next one.  When I am done, the job is done.

Dampers are not hard, they are just tedious, but taking one at a time
and making it work well the job goes quickly enough.

                                Newton
                                nhunt@jagat.com