pinblocks and materials

[Mark Kinsler]

Since my training is in electric power, I understand the conservatism in 
piano manufacturing and maintenance.  The history of, say, plastics in piano 
building seems to have been one of unmitigated disaster.

I'm fascinated with how well the wooden action parts function.  There's 
really no better material for these.  And the felt/polished-steel bearing 
surfaces in the action are equally interesting to a fan of mechanisms and 
materials.  No lubricant needed, a bit of flexibility added to the works, 
nothing much to maintain.  Marvelous.

But I really wonder if the pinblock couldn't use some better engineering.  
The traditional laminated pinblocks are marvels of craftsmanship, but my 
reading of Reblitz' text makes it sound like they're an eternal cause of 
grief.  Have other schemes been tried?  I'm thinking of a brass block with 
tapered steel pins held tight by nuts underneath the block.  Or a cast-iron 
pinblock with brass bushings and the tapered pins.  I'm sure that this has 
been thought of many times.  What were the problems?  Were there ever plates 
that had an integrated iron pinblock cast into them?

Mr Bullock's analysis of the failure of felt also led me to wonder if 
synthetic felts have ever been used for hammers or bearings.  I believe that 
there are nylon and dacron felts.  There's no great guarantee that these 
would be vastly more stable over sixty years or so than traditional wool 
felts, but perhaps they have been tried.

M Kinsler

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