[CAUT] FW: weighing shanks : was spread sheet

[David Love]

Actually I was talking about variations in flexibility and accompanying
tonal variation.  It's not at all clear, yet, that weight translates
directly to flexibility and I've not yet heard that reason given for why
people are sorting shanks. 

David Love
davidlovepianos at comcast.net 
www.davidlovepianos.com

-----Original Message-----
From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
ricb at pianostemmer.no
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 4:15 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: [CAUT] FW: weighing shanks : was spread sheet

---- Original Message ----
From: ricb at pianostemmer.no
To: pianotech at ptg.com
Subject: weighing shanks :  was spread sheet
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:09:44 +0100

Actually, since variations in flexibility is rather a mirror image of
variations in stiffness, and that in turn is very closely related to
specific gravity of a given shank... and that in turn is directly
related to its radius weight... sorting shanks by radius weight is
doing exactly what you state below.... and indeed is one of the basic
motivators why many folks are taking the time to sort and match to
hammers weights

Cheers from NY City

RicB

............
If you wanted to get very picky about potential tonal differences it
might
be worth considering the variations in flexibility between shanks of
equal
diameter.  Certainly rib flexibility (or stiffness) varies with ribs
of the
same dimension, why not shanks, I suppose.  Maybe that's what the
shank
resonance thing speaks to-and perhaps the weight indirectly.  At this
point,
I'm not convinced that other aspects of tonal variation (like
soundboard
resonances for example) so complicate teasing out that variable that
it's
worth the trouble.  At a certain point, no matter what you do,
voicing needs
to be the last line of defense.  The point at which each tech decides
to put
that into play, of course, will vary.