Hello Rik & Andre and List I am trying to establish the fastest method of hardening the hammers of this old upright German "Katz" which is used on stage in "Bartered Bride". Right now we are still in rehearsal and it is very soft sounding. I have regulated the touch and the set-off to bring the hammers within about 5mm from the strings - which is pushing my luck somewhat as a lot of the butt springs are broken! Even so it is very soft-sounding. At the moment we are countering this to a degree by removing the front panel and kneeboard. Fortunately there's a music desk on the fall. I have the following potions :-) Apsco #425 Hammer Felt Reinforcer (that'll take you back a few years?). Very pungent smell. I also have a small can of Humbrol Nitrate Cellulose Dope - this is usually used to taughten the paper tissue skin applied to model aircraft. (great fun!) The Apsco stuff can, I believe, be thinned down using Acetone (nail varnish remover - more smelly stuff!) as required. Given the scenario and with the action on its front (hammers "up") what, in your opinion is the best, fastest and most effective way to harden those hammers? :-) ----- Original Message ----- From: "antares" <antares@euronet.nl> To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 1:18 PM Subject: Re: Re voicing hammers > > On 15-mei-05, at 13:14, Ric Brekne wrote: > >> Hi Andre >> >> My own choice is cellulose lacquer. Its one of the softest, and >> springiest lacquers available. It always struck me that if one first was >> too use lacquer, then a lacqure with its own kind of resiliency was a >> sensible choice. Dries fast, results show themselves in about an hour and >> cures completely in a day or two (at least in the amounts used in hammer >> dopping). > > > Sure, that's why I had no negative opinion about it, other than the fact > that it dries up fast and is therefor a little harder to carry around. >> >> 'some technician' - has observed that lacquers and other hardning agents >> tend to coat the fibers of hammer felt making them brittle and >> essentially destroying their resilent capabitlites. So a chemical that >> simply causes the fibers to tension up a bit...(shrinking) without any >> other affect would perhaps be the ideal. Havent tried any such thing >> yet... shying from chemicals as I do, tho I have bumped into a bit of >> reading on the subject. > > All hardeners clot the wool fibers up to a degree. that's why they are > called hardeners. > I am against them on principle except for the outer extremities of the > keyboard i.e. the highest notes and the lowest notes. > >> >> As for collodium .... grin... you are wrong about its primary benifit >> Andre ! In reality that is its ability to make all future use of mind >> expanding drugs totally redundant !! :) > > > Ah but I like collodium because it does show a result after 1 hr and > especially for the fact that it is easy to carry around. If I want to get > high, that makes it all the more attractive as well ... *((: >))) > la-la-la-la-la.... >> >> Oh.... and Terry... yep.. some folks are out there hardening Yamaha >> hammers. Usually because they have been devastated by softening agents, >> over steamed, or just plain needled to death. Strikes me that in spite >> of all the ingenious alternative methods our American allies have for >> doing things differently... too many over there have forgotten, put >> aside, or otherwise ignored developing and maintaining needling skills. >> No reflection on those who can mind you. One striking difference between >> voicing problems one runs into here in Europe visa vi those in America >> (based on personal experience) is that in America you find tons of cases >> of hammers mauled one way or the other by the uninitiated tech. Where as >> in Europe... the vast majority of voicing problems have their basis >> simply from a lack of voicing maintainance done. > > And in the case of Quentins remark about hammer dope used on Yamaha's : > He indeed means applying some hardener on hammers belonging to a CFIII-S, > the concert grand which has ..... Wurzen felt. > usually the lowest and highest Wurzen hammers could use some extra > 'spritz', that's the price for less needling and easier needling. > > greets > > >> >> Cheers >> RicB >> >> >> >> >> Andre writes: >> >> /My "weapon of choice" is collodium (or collodion) because it is a >> natural hardener, mixed with alcohol and ether. >> >> The ether smells badly for a short time, but the advantage of this is >> that it is easy to apply (with a pipette), easy to take along (in a small >> glass bottle) as a standard tool case item for the traveling technician, >> it will stay the way it is (it does not harden out but stays liquid), >> after 1 hour we get a result and after 1 day the >> stuff has done its work completely/ >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives >> >> > friendly greetings > from > André Oorebeek > > www.concertpianoservice.nl > > "Where music is no harm can be" > > >
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