While I'm quite sure we'll never know for sure without taking some kind of impossible observational data comparing stabbing and pressing as to which tears and which spreads fibres... my gut feeling goes the opposite of Freds. I would think the slow movement of pressing would allow some fibres to be pushed off to one side or the other rather then cut, where as the quick stabbing would just move too fast for this to happen. Further, pressing allows one to either re-enter an already open channel to either spread further or to move in deeper. I find this latter to be of tremendous value when the power of the lower shoulders (what André refers to as the battery of the hammer) is used up. Going in to the tip of the core at about 11:30 very slowly with one needle releases an often untouched source of extra power, that very compact area right around the core itself. I have the sense that this also loosens up a hammer that has been used over many years as well.... that after many years of use not just the surface area gets compressed but the entire depth of the hammer gets further packed. The resulting sound is one that lacks body, depth.... going in deep at the core one needle slowly at a time can yield a wide open beautiful sound with increased power as well... much like opening up the lower shoulders in new hammers does. Cheers RicB Fred, Remember Wally's class where he said an electron microscope showed that the very tip of a needle is about 30 times the size of a wool fiber diameter? This means simply that felt is cut whether you stab or push. Mute point either way. Is that right? Jim -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20100612/b6ad09e6/attachment.htm>
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