Refelting antique hammers

[Farrell]

> 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?

Bulk scrap hammer felt from Schaff. Hot hide.
 
>> 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<!

I don't really know what is the best way to clamp. If you look at the photo, you can see that all I had for clamping pressure was a couple of rubber bands - so very little pressure. I wasn't trying in any way to "tension" the felt - I was just trying to put felt between the wooden core and the string.
 
>> 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
>
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