Role of the Staple on a hammer

[Don Mannino]

David,

I have spoken with a few different hammer makers about this.  The staple's 
primary purpose, according to them, was to help maintain the felt in 
position, maintaining the tension in the felt and maintaining the shape of 
the hammer over time.

They said that the felt has a strong tendency to creep in the first few 
weeks after pressing, and that the hammer head can end up with a very "top 
heavy" shape, as the felt pulls up from the shoulder area.  A strong staple 
helps to lock the shape down.

Don Mannino


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Love" <davidlovepianos at comcast.net>
To: "'Pianotech List'" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 7:50 PM
Subject: Role of the Staple on a hammer


> An older subject but I've been meaning to comment on this.  A few things
> have been written about whether the staple is necessary to secure the glue
> joint on a hammer.  While I do agree that the glue does most (if not all) 
> of
> the work holding the felt to the molding, I think the staple does play a
> role in maintaining the overall tension in the felt.  Hammers without
> staples must resort to reinforcers (which I have done on occasion) or some
> application of heat to stabilize this region.  I think the use of heat to
> create stability has a potential downside in that too much will simply
> remove tension from the felt rather than reinforce this area in any
> particular way.  For that reason, I'm not yet ready to abandon the use of
> the staple.
>
> David Love
> davidlovepianos at comcast.net
> www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>
>
>