[pianotech] Damper Felt

[John Delacour]

At 19:51 -0400 21/04/2011, Ed Foote wrote:

>I have made them work by pulling the smaller side down with a long 
>needle inserted lengthwise about 2/3rds of the way up the leg then 
>trimming the bottom to make both legs even. But I shouldn't have to.

You wouldn't have to with either the Hamburg Steinway felt or the Yamaha felt.

At 17:23 -0700 21/04/2011, David Love wrote:
>Listening to Jack Brand and others there seems to be no question but 
>that making and cutting damper felt is no easy task.   I once 
>watched a damper presentation by one of the old timers from the 
>Mason Hamlin factory (can't remember his name now).  They cut 
>everything themselves from sheets with a hand sharpened knife, even 
>those bichord dampers with the dual overhead slots.  Beautiful work 
>but time consuming no doubt.

It is possible to do horizontal shaped felt like that -- I've done it 
using Steinway hammer rest felt sheets -- but the vertical strips 
would be impossible, I'd say.

Besides, I simply don't believe that the Japanese do it by hand.  I 
don't know how they do it but I guess it's done on a 
computer-controlled table using a circular knife running at very high 
speed.

JD