Of course! I'd forgotten about the vice-grip trick. But wait, there's more. I'm so glad that this list has an archive. After reading Alan's reply I did a search on both vice grip voicing and steam voicing and was rewarded with some very informative and helpful ideas. Including the suggestion of an 8 to 1 alcohol to fabric softener treatment from 1995. Steaming the hammer, quickly, was the all around preferred method of dealing with extraordinarily hard hammers. I think I'll pick up a little electric tea kettle on my way in tomorrow morning and give steam a chance first before resorting to the vice grip method. I almost feel like I'm about to perform a magic trick. Thanks to all -- -- Geoff Sykes -- Assoc. Los Angeles -----Original Message----- From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Alan R. Barnard Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 8:28 PM To: pianotech at ptg.org Subject: RE: Alcohol and hard hammers I'd be leaping on those puppies with my modified Vice-grips (a la Wally Brooks) followed by a lightly damp rag and the back side of my voicing iron, i.e., steam. The needle-in-a-Dremmel works well. I'd try all those things before spending a day trying to, as one put it, "split hickory knots using a corn dodger as a wedge and a pumpkin for a mallet." A quote for Texans: "The universal food of the people of Texas, both rich and poor, seems to be corn-dodger and fried bacon." Frederick Law Olmsted, 'A Journey Through Texas' (1856) Alan Barnard Salem, MO Joshua 24:15 _____ Original message From: "Geoff Sykes" To: "Pianotech at Ptg. Org" Received: 09/14/2006 8:09:38 PM Subject: Alcohol and hard hammers Tomorrow I have to go up against a new, out of the box, upright piano with ROCK hard hammers. I have been asked to voice the hammers down significantly in order to reduce the unpleasant brittle harsh cold sound. Last time I had to do this I just aggressively needled away for a long time. Very aggressively with lots of broken needles. Even after I was "finished" I was still unable to get a needle in more than about 1mm. Not too long ago, on the list, I read that treating hard hammers with a little alcohol would help un-compact the felt. However, these are new hammers and are probably hard because of a hardening treatment. Today's question is: Would a small alcohol treatment help? If not, what would you suggest? -- Geoff Sykes -- Assoc. Los Angeles -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20060914/1ece19ea/attachment.html
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