Water on hammers

[Delwin D Fandrich]

Roger Jolly wrote:

> Hi Del,
>     I totally agree with your comments, re. washing the hardeners out,
> however some of the manufactors in recent years have even experimented with
> a polyester type of granual, with acetone as the solvent. Alcohol or
> acetone can help for a relatively short period of time, but many of these
> products (hardeners) continue to cure over many months if not years.

Yes, I know. That's why I would attempt to get as much of the stuff out as possible. You don't want to just move the stuff
around, you want to get it out. If possible. This was an issue I was fussing about while I was still at Baldwin. We knew then
that these materials continued hardening over time. Usually, as you point out, over a period of years. This, of course just
makes the problem of normal hammer wear that much worse. Certainly makes them harder to work with.


>     The problems that we are talking about are usually found on pianos
> that are still covered by warranty, therefore if this is the case, replace
> the hammers through the cooperation of the dealer and maker.
>     This approach gets attention, and gives better long term results for the
> consumer.

Would that this were always true. Far too often the problem is simply dismissed as normal wear and tear on the piano. "Oh!
Did you actually want to play this piano? Sorry, we didn't realize that's what you wanted it for. That will cost extra."


>     I have also noticed that these hardeners have a very dramatic change
> during the extremely dry winters of the praries, so RH conditions seem to
> be important.
>
> Roger Jolly
> University of Saskatchewan
> Dept. of Music.

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It has been my observation that the excessive use of lacquer in hammers (Actually, all chemicals used to harden hammers.
Actually hard hammers in general.) is most often used to cover problems either in the acoustic design of the piano or in its
assembly. Well, sometimes its also used to cover up for badly made hammers. For those who don't believe me, take a look at
some of those pianos coming out of the factories prior to 1930 or 1940. Even though the hammers on these pianos are now very
old and warn there is still a core softness and resilience to them that will give a piano better dynamic range and subtleties
of tone than most modern pianos can only dream about. And I doubt that those pianos sounded worse then than they do now. What
has changed is diverse enough to fill a book, but surely someday soon we must stop and consider where we are and where we are
going.

So, forget about the lead; let the battle cry be, "Get the lacquer out!"

-- ddf