[pianotech] Shank questions

[Ron Nossaman]

My experience parallels Kent's. Burning these things in is just way 
cool. A little flame heat, and the shanks *liquefy*. No spring back, you 
put them where you want them and that's where they are when they cool. 
The down side is their tendency to split if torqued to even a moderate 
degree without heat. Split = dead, and it happens way too easily on my 
scale. I'm still not a fan of trying to glue a humidity reactive hammer 
molding to a humidity exempt shank and expecting a stable joint, but I'm 
not unaccustomed to being in the minority concerning such things.
Ron N