hammer repair w/leather

[Susan Kline]

At 02:12 AM 7/8/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>except it probably won't because you can't get the proper hammer leather 
>now, and what you can get probably will start flapping about after a bit 
>of playing....

Thanks for the information, Stephen. Could you describe the properties of 
the original leather? Less stretchy, for starters? ... what animal?

At the all-day Steinway program, Eric Schandall talked about cutting strips 
for knuckles and backchecks from head to tail, since the animal's breathing 
flexes the sideways direction. Was this common practice for hammer leather?

(thanks)

Susan