Refelting antique hammers

[Mark Schecter]

Hi, Terry.

Farrell wrote:
> Yes, I have done it. I do not suggest this as a quality solution to 
> addressing worn-out hammers. But if for whatever reason the old hammers 
> are going to be retained and the treble hammers are down to the wood, 
> this will solve that problem.

Thanks for sending the photos. This is a real possibility. What felt did 
you use? What kind of glue did you use?

> As you can see in the photos below, I simply flattened the tops of the 
> target hammers, glued on an oversize strip of hammer felt, and then cut 
> the hammers apart and shaped.

I see you left the hammers on the rail. Was that easier? Seems like it 
might be easier to control clamping pressure on the new felt if you had 
the moldings clamped into a group from the sides. Also, less likelihood 
of twisting a shank >snap<!

> It really worked quite well. The tone was way softer than the remaining 
> old hammers, so I had to juice the "refelted" hammers a fair bit, but 
> eventually the tone blended in quite well with the old horrible hammers 
> on the old worn-out grand piano.

Well, fortunately or not, this piano is not horrible. But the fun thing 
about this is, I can try a couple different approaches and learn 
something, because there's always the next thing if this one doesn't 
work. I might try leather strips covering, then gluing on felt as you've 
done, then if we're not happy, get the old moldings refelted, and if 
that doesn't blow his hair back, we can put in new hammers. We gots options!

Thanks very much for your suggestions.

-Mark Schecter