Some of you may remember that I traveled to Iceland 20 months ago to visit a a young piano technician participant on this list, Kristinn, and his father, Leiff, also a piano technician. Leiff was experimenting with voicing hammers with a Braun electric shaver that is not available in this country. However, I was able to find a very similar model when I got home that had the same micro screen for $19 at CVS. I finally had an opportunity to try this technique on a church piano often accompanied by drums. Wow! Talk about fine resurfacing! The advantage of this method was that the tops of the hammers came out perfectly straight - and they were beautiful and smooth. Also too much power, but that is what voicing needles are for. The foil on the shaver can do 3 hammers at a time. This is definitely a technique worth pursuing, but there were a few pitfalls: 1) rough in the shape first with a file. While I was also at CVS, I bought a package of those dark black emory boards for filing fingernails. Since they have a foam core, they are flexible. I thought they did a better job than any rigid sanding stick I had ever used. 2) Only use the shaver for the final "cut". I played around on the larger hammers without roughing in the shape first, so I shaved through the foil about half way through the set. I continued to use the shaver after the foil was obliterated, but it gave a nicer appearance to those hammers before I broke the thing. 3) The model shaver I bought is no longer available, or replacement foils. That is okay this time because there was enough money in the job to spend the $21 on the equipment. I checked at Target and priced new shavers at $30 and extra foils for $25. Perhaps there are cheaper Braun single microscreens out there somewhere else. Also, mine was electric, instead of a rechargeable battery. I would recommend this for a whole set, but there are advantages of having a battery operated unit for occassional touch-up use. The cord not getting in the way being a big advantage. I think this technique has promise, but there needs to be a way to not have to buy a new electric shaver everytime you want to resurface a set of hammers! If you think this idea is crazy, you should try working in this city! Talk about a "day in the life"! Five people were shot and killed by sniper fire today in the neighborhood I was working! ..and the sniper is still at large. It was also the neighborhood I lived as a teenager. And to think, within the last 24 hours, I was informed that my second grandchild is on the way! Enough for one day. Carol Beigel
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