damper "grain"

[Bill Ballard]

At 12:19 AM -0400 5/25/01, JIMRPT@AOL.COM wrote:
>or another explanation is that "horizontal" felt is layered/cut parallel with
>the strings and "vertical" cut is cut /layered perpendicular to the strings.
>"Vertical" cut felts 'tend' to be of a firmer quality than does "horizontal"
>felt.....or have I got that backwards? :-)

As I understand it, vertical/horizontal grain mainly applies to wedge 
damper felt. The strips for the wedge felts are all cut from the the 
large sheet whose layers are of course horizontal. Vertical damper 
felt is made by turning these strips 90* before cutting the wedges. 
So imagine your damper wedges: vertically cut has the layers of felt 
perpendicular to the string, horizontal parallel to the string. As 
you can imagine, the strings easily wear notches (ledges) into 
vertical damper felt, whereas wedges cut into horizontal grain tend 
to make more noise when being lifted out from between the strings. 
Horizontal felt holds its shape far better than vertical which tends 
to have its layers pried apart each time it's plopped back down on 
the string. Deep Southerner that he is, Jim should be allowed his 
backwards opinions (--we wouldn't have you any other way, Jim) <g>.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"If we see you SMOKING we will assume that you are on fire and will 
take appropriate measures"
     ...........Sign in a Music Dept. Hallway
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