Stringing Braid and the perception of doing it right

[Phil Bondi]

Good Morning to all.

I recently completed my 3rd re-string of my brief career..2 Baldwin Grands
and a newer Wurlitzer Grand that had pre-maturely rusted.

This last re-string has further convinced me of my conviction of the
following:

Stringing Braid is not necessarily necessary.

There was alot of stringing braid that came off of this
Baldwin(#17907..circa 1911)..the bass bridge wire was braided, and the low
tenor to about A4 was braided. That's over 1/2 of the instrument being
braided.

Why?

Is there some musical significance to stringing braid? If there is, I'm not
hearing it.

I am of the belief that a wire on a piano should be allowed to speak freely
without any restrictions. The piano is the only stringed instrument that I
can think of that uses a dampening agent(?) on its waste area for the
purpose of...........

That's my question: What is the purpose of stringing braid? If its purpose
is to dampen overtones, aren't the overtones necessary in the production of
sound? If the purpose of stringing braid is to 'pretty up' the piano, then
I'm guilty of not wanting to pretty it up in that fashion, because I'm not
hearing anything that requires it to be 'prettier'.

I'm looking forward to the responses.

-Phil Bondi (Fl.)
phil@philbondi.com