[CAUT] Rinsing lacquer from hammers

[David Love]

According to Wikipedia:

 

Wool fibers are  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygroscopic> hygroscopic,
meaning they readily absorb moisture. Wool fibers are hollow.[3]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wool#cite_note-2>  Wool can absorb moisture
almost one-third of its own weight.[4]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wool#cite_note-3>  

 

 

David Love

www.davidlovepianos.com

 

From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Fred
Sturm
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 5:23 PM
To: caut at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Rinsing lacquer from hammers

 

On Feb 13, 2011, at 8:40 AM, Dale Erwin wrote:





   I'm curious. I learned from Jack Brand (during the Weickert felt trials)
at Wurzen felt that wool fibers are hollow, which is why they can hold so
much moisture. ie rugs, sweaters etc

 

            This statement caught my eye, and has made me wonder. Are wool
fibers, in fact, hollow? I sort of doubt it, but I don't know. Does anyone
actually know for certain?

             My take on wool absorbing water is not that there is a "hollow
spot inside to hold it," but that the wool fibers themselves (that is, the
material itself of the fibers, the proteins I suppose) "attract" and
"absorb" the water (quotes because I'm sure there are scientific terms for
these things that I don't happen to know). Kind of like the protein in
gelatin, or in hide glue. In any case, the individual fibers do swell in the
presence of water - I am pretty certain of that. In swelling, they spread
out their little scales so that those will tend to interlock with the scales
of other fibers, all of them being pressed more tightly together because the
space between them is taken up by all of them swelling, if they are
constrained in some way (as in center bushing felt, for instance,
constrained between the pin and the wood). This is a part of the felting
process.

            Do they swell with lacquer, or the various solvents associated
with it? I don't think so. In any case, drenching hammers in lacquer
thinner, acetone, or alcohol doesn't seem to make them expand, or leave them
larger than before. Water does make them expand and they end up larger than
before.

            So I don't think we know whether the solids in lacquer penetrate
the wool fibers when we dope hammers. I have always pictured it as coating
the fibers. And have wished that someone would do electron micrography on
lacquered hammers so we could see.

Regards,

Fred Sturm

fssturm at unm.edu

http://www.youtube.com/fredsturm

 

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