I have been intending to write this for some time now so here it is. There is a guy, Ray Vale, in San Antonio, who makes some very nice tools. He makes a set of hammer filing tools that use strips of sand paper with a very low friction tape backing that work with a set of three Guides. I first used them to straighten up the strike point of an S&S D someone had filed all wrong and I was having trouble getting straight because all my sight references had been destroyed. So I took out Ray's tools and they worked beautifully and I was able to restore the proper tone to the piano without destroying the hammers. They will need to be repalced in the future but these tools help me out of a bad spot. Since I have used them on other situations and find that I can file hammers straight and evenly using the three different curves on the inside of the tools. They have sides that come down over the shoulders that orient the tool properly to get an optimum strike point. They take practice to use but I don't think I will be without them on any job now. He also makes a voicing support tool that ideally supports one hammer for voicing. I haven't used it yet but it appears to solve the problem of good support. I can recommend the filing tools without reservation even though they are a bit expensive because they are all hand made. Ray Vale can be reached at the above address. Newton
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