S & S 'D' Problems

[Newton Hunt]

> As to your basic problem of back hammer shoulders hitting and 
> catching on the backchecks, 

I have encountered this problem before, as we all have.  

I think there are three issues here.

1.  Backchecks too high.  
2.  Hammers too big
3.  Tails too short
4.  Too much wood removed when shaping
5.  Improper shape.

(Yeah, yeah, I know, I cannot count)

The solution is obvious for 1.

2. is to cut some of the felt off below the widest point of the hammer. 
That is useless material anyway so there will be no voicing effect to
bother about.

3. extend the hammer tail length to 4. and 5. are solved also.  The
easier solution is to glue on some nice wood strips to the bottom of the
hammer with CA glue such that the backcheck is moved away from the
hammer.  This strip may be as small as 3/8" grain oriented 90 degrees
(better checking) and extending down as far as needful.  Trim the sides
to match the hammer tapering and reshape at a proper 2" radius.

This is a simplistic solution but it WORKS.  

It is simplistic, so why did it take me 30 years to figure it out?

		Newton