Research:leather covered hammers

[Kristinn Leifsson]

Hello Diane, I´m sorry for your loss.

This research is very interesting.

I have never, myself, seen a piano with leather covered hammers.  Only the 
OLD ones in the books.

Since you were talking about the possibility of other materials... what 
about... and I´m not making fun...  appropriately treated cod-skin?
It´s actually becoming quite fashionable in market.  Cod wallets, cod 
boots...I even have skin cream that contains cod enzymes which is becoming 
extremely popular and expensive.

It sure would be interesting to hear about this if you tried it, at least...

Good luck,

Kristinn



At 03:50 17.12.2000 -0900, you wrote:
>List,
>
>  This is a description of one of my current research projects and of the 
> personal reasons it has become a vital interest to me at this time.
>
>  I am 54, my partner is 67.  I always knew he would probably die before 
> me, but my feeble brain never realized that he might spend a long time 
> before he did so in a state of not being able to work and needing my 
> care, so that I frequently can't work either.  I had a hint of that in 
> 1993 when he had a heart attack, but he bounced back from triple bypass 
> surgery very quickly and I stuck my head back into the sand again.  Then 
> last October he had a stroke and everything changed.
>
>  Now we are very dependent on our fleet of rental pianos to pay our basic 
> living expenses, which they almost do.  But it is getting harder and 
> harder to keep them up to the level of quality that I desire.  Before my 
> father and he would do the tunings in the home after they were delivered 
> and I would do all the reconditioning in the shop and the bookkeeping for 
> our businesses.
>
>  So there I was shaping a set of hammers from a rental last night and 
> remembering something I have wondered for years. Whenever I have rebuilt 
> an antique grand with leather covered hammers, I have been amazed to see 
> what good shape most of the hammers are in on 150 year old pianos--after 
> removing the destroyed leather.  Why I thought, couldn't there be some 
> kind of covers for rental piano hammers?  If there was something that 
> lasted only half as long as those leather covered hammers I would be 
> _way_ ahead.
>
>  Meanwhile I have a customer who wants me to replace the leather on the 
> hammers of his mid-19th century Bosendorfer.  He wants it so bad that 
> last time I tuned he produced a chamois that he had purchased for the 
> purpose and asked me to cover them with it.  We tried it on one hammer 
> and it didn't sound any good.
>
>  I now have a beautiful, soft, supple deerskin which sounded wonderful on 
> the Pokorney we rebuilt last Christmas and am wondering about putting it 
> on his hammers.  Also there are questions about how to voice leather once 
> it's on the hammers.
>
>  Then there is the old Chickering upright that just came back from a 
> rental customer which needs new hammers badly.  It was restrung 10 years 
> ago, but the hammers are fried.  So I shaped them one last time and am 
> going to cover them with deerskin to find out how they sound before 
> replacing them.
>
>  But is deerskin the best leather?  Is there any other material that 
> might be better than any leather?  Would there be any material that would 
> apply to the hammers easier and quicker?  Would there be any material 
> that could be put on the hammers temporarily to completely change the 
> voicing for just one concert?  Perhaps a material that could be clipped 
> on for the rock concert and a different one for the classical concert?
>
>  How could we measure the tonal differences of different materials?  How 
> would we know their life expectancy?  How would we even find out about 
> materials that might be just perfect but they are used to build private 
> airplanes and we aren't even pilots, much less airplane manufacturers?
>
>  These are questions I find interesting for their own sake and for the 
> practical need I have in my business.  I will pursue the research project.
>My guess is that there are many other such questions burning in others' 
>brains.  Can pianotech be a place where such research projects could be shared?
>
>  Diane
>
>
>Diane Hofstetter
>245-M Mount Hermon Rd.#343
>Scotts Valley, CA 95066
>ph  831-438-6222
>fax 831-430-9741
>dianepianotuner@hotmail.com
>
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