reply to Ilvedsen on yamaha hmrs

[Susan Kline]

>I consider a hammer
>that  thas been made so hard as to be inpenitrble to needles or ones  that
>even after much voicing soon return to there  prior ear shattering ways to
>bear my deragatory term shrink wrapped .


Hi, Dale

Your previous post talked about hammers like these having shoulders which
have been needled to mush, along with the "sacred triangle" being hard
as nails.

Have you ever tried putting a few drops of vodka right on the striking
surface? I've tried this with extreme cases, like Hamilton uprights
in Sunday school rooms, and I find that I prefer it to "sugar coating"
with needles, since it doesn't tear the felt, and seems to last longer.
It's a starting point, of course, since the voicing will need evening
up. On a decent grand, the strike surface also might need a little
filing to get the string mating right. However, I feel that avoiding
needles where possible is a move in the right direction.

A few drops of vodka can also take the place of some steaming, I feel,
and a little plastic dropper bottle of vodka fits more easily into a
kit than a hammer iron, extension cord, and rheostat, or an electric
kettle. In an upright or spinet, the action doesn't have to be
removed, either, and in a grand vodka can be applied with the action
in your lap, so it doesn't have to be lifted out.

Also, I've been experimenting with ultrablonde shellac, made up with
bulk grain alcohol and shellac flakes, as a juice. I was attracted
by the nontoxic nature of it, and also by reports that Steinway used
to voice with shellac way back when, and that under heavy use shellac
tends to break up and get less bright instead of more. Also, I feel
that if one ends up with too much on the surface of the hammer, it
is more soluble (in more alcohol) so it can be wicked further into
the hammer, as opposed to the keytop, which doesn't want to dissolve.

There are a couple of drawbacks to the shellac, (in my humble opinion.)
First, even the ultrablonde has a little color to it, and if customers
are very picky about appearance, they might not like it. I consider that
this could be a "feature", since you can see where it has gone, and how
far it has wicked into the hammer. The other drawback is that shellac
hasn't got a long shelf life after it has been made up, and over time
starts to take longer to dry out. So one would need to make up small
batches, and toss it every now and then. (Once a month, or so?)

Anyway, if you feel like trying shellac, I'd be glad of your observations.
I find that it dries quite quickly (I make it up with Everclear
alcohol, which is 190 proof, so it only has 5% water in it.) I also
like the tone I get, which isn't as "spicky" as keytop.

I'm wondering how shellac would do to harden those
overneedled Yamaha hammer shoulders. I also sometimes drip it
into the sides of hammers, to harden near the core more than the
surface. On the sides, the color helps to show where it is,
and unless it wicks right to the surface, would not alter
the hammer appearance much.

Regards,

Susan Kline