<div>Why would carbon fiber be stiffer? The beauty of carbon fiber is that the stiffness is controlable and can be varied to spec along the length of the shank. A shank then can be designed like a ski, placing the stiffness length wise where it is needed and controlling the  torsional rotation at the same time. Since strength is adjustable, the shanks should be lighter. </div> <div>I met a carbon fiber engineer from Washington who makes drums. He said CF has very similar sound transmission properties as wood. </div> <div>I doubt the shanks we can get are that hi-tec. Only Kawai has spent that kind of money on research. It's all in how you set up the magnetic fields that align the fibers for the part you need and what you are trying to accomplish. If you are just trying to duplicate wood, that would be easy. If you are taking high speed photographs and trying to design a flexable shaft that improves sound production, then you are taking the piano to higher levels like the skiing and tennis of today. Ask any athlete if they would go back to the old wood racquets and skiis. Eh????</div> <div> </div> <div>Keith Roberts<br><br></div> <div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 3:50 PM, Mark Dierauf <<a href="mailto:pianotech@nhpianos.com">pianotech@nhpianos.com</a>> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"> <div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> My larger concern here was for weight reduction, but I will include S&S shanks when sampling various options before making a final decision. <br>You ask if the shanks can be "too stiff". Of course I don't know the answer, but I could imagine that a dramatically different stiffness could affect the hammer string contact time (and contact <i>point</i>) and therefore the tone. Hence my reluctance to try the WNG Carbon fiber shanks before hearing them on more than the two examples that I recently heard at NEECSO this past April, all the more so since these were Mason & Hamlins and not Steinways, and neither of these two were entirely ready for primetime (the composite actions had only been temporarily installed for the seminar the previous week).<br> <br>- Mark Dierauf<br></div></blockquote></div>