striking point for new hammers

[John Delacour]

At 6:19 pm +1000 1/8/07, anthony wrote:

>         l'm about to fit a new set of hammers to an old wilcox and 
>white angelus upright piano which has had the old hammers removed 
>and also new tuning pins and strings installed.
>
>my question is related to the striking point,is there a rule of 
>thumb that is accurate enough for this?
>can you use a ratio of the speaking lenght at several positions and 
>draw a line betwen them?

Go down 1/8 of the speaking length on note 1 and 1/16 of the speaking 
length on the top note and you'll probably find the line joining them 
(the strike line) is horizontal.  If not, get a piece of card, rest 
it on the action beam at the top note and mark it 3mm below the top 
bridge.  Transfer this mark to the bottom string and join the two 
points.  Note that some pianos raise the hammers above the line a 
little towards the tenor break to make room for longer dampers.

JD