Shellac vs. lacquer

[Susan Kline]

It sounds like you've been having a very positive experience with your 
shellac hammer-building. I sincerely hope it continues well over time. Can 
you describe the solution you used? What dilution, which alcohol? Or 
premixed? Did you find that the color was a problem? What impressions did 
you have as you applied it? Did you do any wet-voicing with it?

It would be interesting, another time, to compare how long the shellac 
takes to set up as opposed to the lacquer or acetone/keytop. Especially 
since keytop's main virtue appears to be its fast drying time.

(thanks)

Susan

At 12:31 AM 7/18/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>At 10:45 AM -0700 7/15/02, Susan Kline wrote:
>>P.S. A blow-by-blow of your return visit to voice that set of hammers 
>>would be very welcome! I've used >shellac for voicing, but never for 
>>building up a new set of hammers from scratch before.
>
>In the second session, I simply walked in, listened and sugar-coated the 
>crown with my calligraphy tool at various levels of volume, beginning with 
>the racket-ball, and ending up with the soft voicing. The hammer felt 
>seemed amazing alive. It token far less stitching than I'm used to with 
>keytop (in fact, ProTek's plastic which looks suspiciously like 
>plexiglass). It was more like tweaking than "tenderizing" (in the USDA 
>definition of that word). Also, if I ever over-shot (which would be by 
>small amounts), a quick swipe with the sand paddle would bring the focus 
>back into the sound. No more "died on the operating table" voicing jobs.
>
>Still more interesting, was the fact that a change in the loud voicing of 
>a note did not automatically suppress the lower level. In the mezzo 
>voicing, I stumbled across several "roosters", and wondered they can't be 
>this loud in mezzo without being the same in fff. How could I miss them 
>there? Sure enough, in the loud range they were just as nicely voiced as 
>when I left them. This told me that the color/density gradient would not 
>be a function of how  stabbing in the loud range would be reflected in 
>lower levels, that in fact I was getting to set the gradient, manually. 
>The good part was that it was in my hands.
>
>Overall, my feeling was that these hammers could have gone a little 
>brighter and still shone instead of glared or glinted. I certainly had no 
>trouble warming them up with a little sugar. As the two pianists (without 
>whom I worked since '92) and I sort out how this piano should sound, at 
>least I know I'm working with a set of hammers (and sound) which will move 
>when I poke it.
>
>How this might be different with nitro or its precursor, guncotton (the 
>resin in collodion), I don't know. I'm only grateful that it's happening here.
>
>The two pianists give me the opportunity to get these hammers 
>work-hardened. I'm looking forward to the emergence of this piano.
>
>Bill Ballard RPT
>NH Chapter, P.T.G.
>
>"May you work on interesting pianos."
>     ...........Ancient Chinese Proverb
>+++++++++++++++++++++