Ronsen Hammers

[gordon stelter]

Mr. Negron,
     I once heard that you use the actual, 19th
Century hammer presses from Alfred Dolge's factory in
Dolgeville, N.Y..
     Is this true ? 
     Thump

P.S. On this trek I also found an extremely early 
( 1895 ) Peerless coin piano, and a mint S&S Duo-Art (
"OR" ) in a  church sanctuary. Bought the Peerless for
$200, but the Duo-Art is probably still up there. 


--- Erwinspiano@aol.com wrote:
>      Hi Ray
>    Thanks. Good post & thanks for the clear  mission
> statement & philosophy.. 
> Maybe next time you could give us your thoughts on
> tension & compression. 
>   Dale
> Hello,
> 
> Dale Erwin asked me to post information to this list
> in order to clarify some 
> comments that have been made about our hammers in
> these tech discussions. So, 
> for anyone who is interested, here is some
> information, and I will try to not 
> make this a Ronsen commercial.
> 
> We don't call our hammers "cold pressed" because we
> do use some heat to cure 
> the glue. The heat stays on for 30 minutes, at which
> point it is turned off, 
> and the set is left in the press for an additional 2
> hours & 30 minutes. So, I 
> guess you could say we have "slow-pressed"
> hammers.We have experimented with 
> heat, and true cold pressed hammers, and feel that
> our method gives the same 
> result as a cold pressed hammer. We do pre- press
> now, but use no heat in that 
> process. We also use hand presses, not hydraulic
> presses.
> 
> We manufacture hammers this way because our goal is
> to make hammers similar 
> to those produced in this country in the 1920's. In
> talking with technicians 
> over the years, especially Willis Snyder,we have
> often heard about the beautiful 
> sounding pianos produced in the 20's, and the
> properties of the hammers in 
> those pianos. As the industry changed, and most of
> our business was for 
> rebuilders instead of manufacturers, we decided to
> try to produce that type of hammer, 
> which meant re-learning how to make hammers.
> Discussions with my father 
> Marty, who was the foreman at Pfriemer Piano Hammer
> before starting Ronsen, got us 
> going in this direction. We continue to make changes
> to improve the quality of 
> our hammers, including, thanks to Andre Oorebeek and
> Serge Harel, the 
> addition of Wurzen felt to our inventory. Other
> manufacturers have also worked to 
> improve the quality of their hammers. Like you, we
> manufacturers also take pride 
> in our work. We at Ronsen know that most technicians
> today prefer the harder 
> hammers, but we are happy with our niche in the
> industry. If you have any 
> questions or comments, I can be reached at
> ray@ronsen-hammer.com Thank you.
> 
> Ray Negron
> 



	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs  
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover