>I consider a hammer >that thas been made so hard as to be inpenitrble to needles or ones that >even after much voicing soon return to there prior ear shattering ways to >bear my deragatory term shrink wrapped . Hi, Dale Your previous post talked about hammers like these having shoulders which have been needled to mush, along with the "sacred triangle" being hard as nails. Have you ever tried putting a few drops of vodka right on the striking surface? I've tried this with extreme cases, like Hamilton uprights in Sunday school rooms, and I find that I prefer it to "sugar coating" with needles, since it doesn't tear the felt, and seems to last longer. It's a starting point, of course, since the voicing will need evening up. On a decent grand, the strike surface also might need a little filing to get the string mating right. However, I feel that avoiding needles where possible is a move in the right direction. A few drops of vodka can also take the place of some steaming, I feel, and a little plastic dropper bottle of vodka fits more easily into a kit than a hammer iron, extension cord, and rheostat, or an electric kettle. In an upright or spinet, the action doesn't have to be removed, either, and in a grand vodka can be applied with the action in your lap, so it doesn't have to be lifted out. Also, I've been experimenting with ultrablonde shellac, made up with bulk grain alcohol and shellac flakes, as a juice. I was attracted by the nontoxic nature of it, and also by reports that Steinway used to voice with shellac way back when, and that under heavy use shellac tends to break up and get less bright instead of more. Also, I feel that if one ends up with too much on the surface of the hammer, it is more soluble (in more alcohol) so it can be wicked further into the hammer, as opposed to the keytop, which doesn't want to dissolve. There are a couple of drawbacks to the shellac, (in my humble opinion.) First, even the ultrablonde has a little color to it, and if customers are very picky about appearance, they might not like it. I consider that this could be a "feature", since you can see where it has gone, and how far it has wicked into the hammer. The other drawback is that shellac hasn't got a long shelf life after it has been made up, and over time starts to take longer to dry out. So one would need to make up small batches, and toss it every now and then. (Once a month, or so?) Anyway, if you feel like trying shellac, I'd be glad of your observations. I find that it dries quite quickly (I make it up with Everclear alcohol, which is 190 proof, so it only has 5% water in it.) I also like the tone I get, which isn't as "spicky" as keytop. I'm wondering how shellac would do to harden those overneedled Yamaha hammer shoulders. I also sometimes drip it into the sides of hammers, to harden near the core more than the surface. On the sides, the color helps to show where it is, and unless it wicks right to the surface, would not alter the hammer appearance much. Regards, Susan Kline
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