Upright Treble Hammer Weight

[Michael Spalding]

Terry,

I hope Ray is willing to taper the moldings to achieve lighter high treble hammers.  Sounds like a number of listers would be interested in having this change - I certainly would.  The last set of upright hammers I installed, the original C88 was 3.8g, the new C88 started around 7, and with all the tail modifications could only reduce it to around 5.  As in your photo, the real source of excess weight had felt wrapped around it, maiking it inaccessible for modification.  

A colleague, who is a light hammer obsessive, tapers on a router table, using a template that severely tapers the low shoulder, then comes back out to full width at the shank bore, then comes back  in to continue the severe taper down into the tail.  He says it requires a hard-pressed hammer to withstand the loss of felt in the low shoulders.  For that reason, I've never tried it, not wanting to change hammer makers in mid-stream (mid-life?).  Might be interesting to try in the top section, where there is some bare wood between the shank and the hammer shoulder??

Getting back to the hammer maker, I'm guessing that thinning the molding in the high treble would introduce pressing problems:  would have to adjust felt thickness or caul shape, moldings might be weakened enough to break during pressing, etc.  Let us know what Ray says.

Mike


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Farrell 
To: Pianotech List
Sent: 4/5/2006 8:24:08 PM 
Subject: Re: Upright Treble Hammer Weight


snip:
Examining the new hammers a bit closer, I see that the mouldings are the same dimensions on A0 and C88 - the bass hammer has a shorter moulding of course, but the other dimensions are the same. I'm going to inquire with Ray over at Ronsen and see if they taper the dimensions of their hammer cores.

Terry Farrell
  
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