hammer brushing

[David ilvedson]

Hi John,

First of all brushing hammers is not a substitute for hammer 
filing.  I don't use brass or steel brushes and wouldn't use 
steel as it will, as you found out, beat the hell out of the top 
layers.  I use a plastic bristle brush which affects the top layer 
of felt only.  It is temporary and used to even things out or 
when I have no time for needles.  I will try the brass brush in 
the future.  

David Ilvedson, RPT


From:           	"John M. Formsma" <jformsma@dixie-net.com>
To:             	<pianotech@ptg.org>
Subject:        	hammer brushing
Date sent:      	Thu, 27 May 1999 08:56:07 -0500
Send reply to:  	pianotech@ptg.org

> Ron, David, and List:
> 
> Sorry to be late on this thread from a few days ago.  I tried this technique
> on our 1919 Bechstein, which (I think) had had new hammers hung at some time
> between its construction and when my family acquired it.
> 
> Anyway, used the brass brush, and also tried a small steel bristle brush. Do
> you know if steel is acceptable to use on hammers, or should one stick with
> the brass? I know brass is softer than steel, and will remove less. However,
> on this piano, the hammers were quite grooved, and the steel took a bunch of
> that out, whereas the brass did not do as much removal. (I don't think there
> has been any hammer filing or voicing in the last 20 years, and it has been
> played very regularly since my Mom is a piano teacher.)
> 
> After cleaning with the brass and steel brushes, the tone was very soft--too
> soft. So I dry ironed the hammers using Roger Jolly's technique as written
> in this month's PTJ (Good article!!). That brightened it up very nicely, and
> the piano sounds loads better than before. The tone is more precise rather
> than splattered.
> 
> Anyway, thought I'd ask the list's opinion. By the way, this was my first
> attempt at this voicing stuff, and I wanted to get some direction if anyone
> has an opinion? Opinions--on this list???? <grin>
> 
> If there are archives on this, I'd be glad to look for them. Under what
> topic would they be classified?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> John Formsma
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf
> Of Ron Nossaman
> Sent: Saturday, May 22, 1999 12:40 AM
> To: pianotech@ptg.org
> Subject: Re: "I" Bridge
> 
> 
> 
> >I use a vegetable cleaning brush with bristles.  Does your
> > voicing scrubber have bristles?
> >
> >David Ilvedson
> >
> 
> Yep, brass. It cleans the crud out of the string cuts and raises the "nap"
> of the felt enough to eliminate a lot of the high painful partials. Raises a
> heck of a dust cloud in use, but it's about the cheapest magic I know, and
> the best $.69 I ever spent. You can make over $200 an hour for about five
> minutes brushing a set of hammers, and make $150 worth of difference in the
> sound for a few bucks worth of your time. A real crowd pleaser. A suede
> brush works very well too, but this old scrubber has a long handle so I
> don't take knuckles off (mine) on the pressure bar screws in verticals. I
> have no idea if they are still available, or what they cost by now.
> 
>  Ron
> 
> 


David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA
ilvey@jps.net