<html> Wim,    I take off the shank bits at the same time I shape the tails. I clamp up a section of hammers with a standard sandwich clamp, and grind off the bits with a right-angle grinder fitted with a couple of thicknesses of 50 grit wheels. 41/2 to 6 inch dia.. I prefer the air tool variety, but a 19.99 Harbor Freight grinder will work. Air gives you a lot more control, and runs a bit quieter. Come by the rebuilding skills class at Annual for a demo. I learned it from Jamie Marks and have been using it for years. After taking off the bits I shape the tails, and the 50 grit leaves the wood just right for positive checking without tearing up the leather. No checkering file needed. I often reshape existing tails for the heck of it now, because it's about 10 minutes to make a huge difference on some of the older, angled-and-mangled imports. Later, Guiy At 12:57 PM 2/19/2004 -0500, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>I used to saw off the ends of shanks with a Dremel saw. But Dremel discontinued making them. (I guess too many people trying to stop the saw with their fingers, and suing Dremel because it cut off their fingers.)   For a while I was taking the hammers and shanks off, and trimming the tails with a band saw. But lately I've been using a Heavy Duty Cutt-Off Wheel, no. 420 from Dremel. I just did a set,  and it worked OK, except that it burns the wood, which creates a bad smell, and I used 6 wheels.   Does anyone else have a way to trim the tails, other than using a band saw?   Wim Willem Blees, RPT Piano tuner/technician School of Music University of Alabama</blockquote></html>