Hi John, First of all brushing hammers is not a substitute for hammer filing. I don't use brass or steel brushes and wouldn't use steel as it will, as you found out, beat the hell out of the top layers. I use a plastic bristle brush which affects the top layer of felt only. It is temporary and used to even things out or when I have no time for needles. I will try the brass brush in the future. David Ilvedson, RPT From: "John M. Formsma" <jformsma@dixie-net.com> To: <pianotech@ptg.org> Subject: hammer brushing Date sent: Thu, 27 May 1999 08:56:07 -0500 Send reply to: pianotech@ptg.org > Ron, David, and List: > > Sorry to be late on this thread from a few days ago. I tried this technique > on our 1919 Bechstein, which (I think) had had new hammers hung at some time > between its construction and when my family acquired it. > > Anyway, used the brass brush, and also tried a small steel bristle brush. Do > you know if steel is acceptable to use on hammers, or should one stick with > the brass? I know brass is softer than steel, and will remove less. However, > on this piano, the hammers were quite grooved, and the steel took a bunch of > that out, whereas the brass did not do as much removal. (I don't think there > has been any hammer filing or voicing in the last 20 years, and it has been > played very regularly since my Mom is a piano teacher.) > > After cleaning with the brass and steel brushes, the tone was very soft--too > soft. So I dry ironed the hammers using Roger Jolly's technique as written > in this month's PTJ (Good article!!). That brightened it up very nicely, and > the piano sounds loads better than before. The tone is more precise rather > than splattered. > > Anyway, thought I'd ask the list's opinion. By the way, this was my first > attempt at this voicing stuff, and I wanted to get some direction if anyone > has an opinion? Opinions--on this list???? <grin> > > If there are archives on this, I'd be glad to look for them. Under what > topic would they be classified? > > Thanks. > > John Formsma > > > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-pianotech@ptg.org [mailto:owner-pianotech@ptg.org]On Behalf > Of Ron Nossaman > Sent: Saturday, May 22, 1999 12:40 AM > To: pianotech@ptg.org > Subject: Re: "I" Bridge > > > > >I use a vegetable cleaning brush with bristles. Does your > > voicing scrubber have bristles? > > > >David Ilvedson > > > > Yep, brass. It cleans the crud out of the string cuts and raises the "nap" > of the felt enough to eliminate a lot of the high painful partials. Raises a > heck of a dust cloud in use, but it's about the cheapest magic I know, and > the best $.69 I ever spent. You can make over $200 an hour for about five > minutes brushing a set of hammers, and make $150 worth of difference in the > sound for a few bucks worth of your time. A real crowd pleaser. A suede > brush works very well too, but this old scrubber has a long handle so I > don't take knuckles off (mine) on the pressure bar screws in verticals. I > have no idea if they are still available, or what they cost by now. > > Ron > > David Ilvedson, RPT Pacifica, CA ilvey@jps.net
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