hard grand hammers

[David Ilvedson]

I find it hard to believe that after breathing acetone while you were
needling that you had any appetite...

David I.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

>Hi Glenn,
>               Hi Glenn, I have another technique, just as crazy as my
>steaming ideas.
>I call it wet needling, I've done enough of them now to partially step out
>of the closet.
>
>For severly over juiced hammers only.
>
>Drench the hammers in acetone. in a well ventilated space. Wait 10mins for
>the acetone to placticize the hardener.
>Resoak.  Insert needles about 1/2" at about 1/8" intervals. Up over the
>shoulders.  You can feel the shoulders flex with each insertion.  The
>needles will go in easily to full depth.
>
>Go for lunch, before coming back and trying the piano, give the
>acetone/hardener a chance to firm up.
>With out compacting the felt as much, by playing right away.
>
>With hammers that are requiring this kind of extreme treatment, I will
>advise the customer that it has a 50/50 chance of working, but new hammers
>is the ideal solution.  This covers my butt if things don't work out.
Note.
>Never had to use the paracute.
>
>I discovered this on new pianos that had been over juiced where I had a
set
>of replacement hammers at hand,  Never did replace the hammers. And have
>observered some of these pianos over a 3yr period.
>
>CAUTION:   This is not a technique for the novice voicer.  At this point
in
>time I consider it a back against the wall type solution. Once I have more
>data, and experience, I'll get bold enough to write an artical on my
>findings.
>
>Would love to get some feed back from others that have tried some thing
>similar.
>
>regards Roger