steaming hammers, again

[Farrell]

On thing to add here. Roger Jolly suggested to me a while back that if you
have hammers that have real deep groves, steam them first - that way you
will minimize the amount of felt you need to file off. I haven't used this
tip yet, but I surely will in the future

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Bondi" <tito@PhilBondi.com>
To: <pianotech@ptg.org>
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 5:32 AM
Subject: Re: steaming hammers, again


> Dave, I steamed my first set of hammers just yesterday..for lack of a
better
> term, Asian 'rocks' at the end of a hammer shank.
>
> the results were very pleasing.
>
> As to your question about 'what happens over time' with steamed
> hammers'?...well, the hammers in question here are in my shop attached to
a
> piano I recently re-strung. The piano is going back to the dealership that
I
> do work for, so I will be following this piano around for awhile..I
> anticipate that the longevity of this procedure rivals that any other
hammer
> softening technique that we know of, including Alcohol/Snuggles(my other
> choice of hammer softening).
>
> In your post, you mentioned NOT re-shaping hammers before steaming..I did
on
> the hammers in my shop..I got a better tone after re-shaping and then I
> steamed them and got even better tone after that.
> I recommend re-shaping first before steaming.
>
> My breif experiences exposed,
> roo(k)
>
>
>