[CAUT] Lacquered hammers

[Horace Greeley]

Hi, Del,

At 10:34 PM 2/18/2011, you wrote:
>Alluded to by whom?

I'm not sure by whom else, but I'm pretty sure that I've written 
about this before.  If not here, then maybe on pianotech.

In any event, the very consistent story told over time was that in 
"the old days", there was no hardener used, rather ironing, shaping 
and needles.  Fairly soon, though...so the story goes...the concert 
pianos (and later the factory) started using varnish and/or shellac 
(depending on what was handy) for hardening.  This changed to lacquer 
when the factory dropped varnish finishes; and then later changed to 
automotive lacquer when the finish department discovered that there 
was a higher level of solids in that than they could buy ready-mixed 
for wood finish.  Since my experience over time has generally born 
out those changes.

Also, while I can't find it at the moment, someone (Doug Wood) was 
asking about the use of hardener in the basement?  I'm pretty sure 
that was started well before WWII.  Some form of hardener is pretty 
clearly in evidence, especially in some of Rachmaninoff's and Josef 
Hofmann's recordings.  Post WWII, hardening in both the basement and 
factory were very common, with several different "standard" 
procedures in use for a number of years.  The first real change, per 
se, came with the mutation to all the hardener going through the 
crown...which fails on it's premise, but that's a long 
discussion.  We can talk about it during the concert service sections 
at the convention if anyone is interested.

Best.

Horace




>ddf
>
>Delwin D Fandrich
>Piano Design & Fabrication
>620 South Tower Avenue
>Centralia, Washington 98531 USA
>del at fandrichpiano.com
>ddfandrich at gmail.com
>Phone  360.736.7563
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of
>Douglas E. Wood
>Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 7:48 PM
>To: caut at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [CAUT] Lacquered hammers
>
>Excellent. Somehow I'd like to acquire a few such hammers and find a way to
>have them assayed. Of course back then it was almost surely varnish or
>shellac. This, too, has been alluded to often: the hardener was what was
>already in the factory for other purposes.