With respect to "the old days," those "consistent stories" told over time don’t seem to have been discovered until the relatively new days. Lacking evidence to the contrary I have come to assume they have evolved by well-meaning folks who are attempting to gain some historical credibility to justify today's practice. Rather like the children's game of "Telephone" where, "I wonder if...," with repeated telling becomes, "They did it then...." These stories were certainly not consistent in the 1960s when I was starting my career. The stories I remember from the time, at least, were more along the lines of "they didn't used to do that." I've been told there were references to chemically hardening hammers in "Piano Tone Building" but when these are tracked down the passages in question clearly refer to the mixtures soaked into the shoulders -- "reinforcing" -- primarily as an aid to gluing but also to harden (certainly in Steinway's case) the low shoulders. My own experiences being taught and learning about voicing hammers back then in "the old days" (when many of the pianos under discussion now were not that old and we frequently had the real thing to work with) have lead me to believe that the practice of chemically hardening piano hammers is a relatively recent phenomena. At the time -- 1960s and early 1970s -- it was being done tentatively and cautiously by some few and criticized by others who seemed of the opinion that it was never done in the old days and shouldn't be done in the new days. (Though by then it may have gained traction in some factories but it was also understood that by then some factory hammer and belly departments were long and well out of control.) For the most part, though, the idea of saturating a piano hammer with any kind of chemical hardener would have been contemplated with suitable horror by my older mentors of the day. I continue to enquire if there is any credible written documentation of the practice dating back to the early 20th century. So far none has come to light but it may be out there somewhere. 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 Horace Greeley Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 11:41 PM To: caut at ptg.org Subject: Re: [CAUT] Lacquered hammers 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.
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