Dan, Thanks for the suggestion about steam. I've never resorted to that technique so far, but it may come to that some day. In my case with the Sojin hammers I did use the vise grip technique succesfully using a small pliers for the middle and upper register and a large one for the bass. A few firm squeezes on each hammer around the shoulders seems to have supplied the necessary breaking up of the internal structure so that when I applied the needles they were effective. I did find something strange. And that is that with a single stong needle I was able to go about one sixteenth into the hammer at various angles. there seemed to be a thick skin around each hammer that permitted the needle to enter the surface up to a hard core. I proceded to penetrate slightly into the core on each stitch. I followed this with a three needle approach, which seemed to work. The result was rather startling both to me and the customer. What started out to be a box turned out to be a beautiful piano. Thanks for the input, and I'll keep the steam in abeyance. Dan Franklin, Singing Tone
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