[pianotech] Shank questions

[John Delacour]

At 10:23 -0400 26/05/2011, Dale Erwin wrote:
>Perhaps using a water thin epoxy like rot doctor to quickly coat the 
>average set of wooden shanks would seem to me to add some stiffness 
>as well and secondarily... humidity resistance. Just muttering out 
>loud here.

At 10:37 -0400 26/05/2011, Tom Rhea, Jr. wrote:
>My thinking is that the diluted wood glue, once dried, would give 
>additional strength and rigidity to the shanks.  The specifics of 
>glue dilution, amount of pressure and time of pressurization would 
>have to be worked out, but it seems plausible to me.

Neither of these tricks would make any appreciable difference.  The 
only way to make a significant difference in the stiffness is to 
increase the depth of the shank and then the gain in stiffness is 
exponential.  Both epoxy and glue are less stiff than wood and even a 
thick coating would add next to nothing to the depth.

JD