Alcohol and hard hammers

[Ric Brekne]

Phil Bondi writes:

I'm not Roger Jolly - nor do I ever want to be..but learning how to control-steam bricks-at-the-end-of-hammer-shanks is not hard. ____A  little bit goes a long way____. That's probably the most important thing to remember.
*
*---------------*
Good advice !
*---------------*

Another thing to remember to those who are thinking about  experimenting with this softening method: it does not work  on lacquered hammers..it does, but you run the risk of  ruining the hammers if you try softening w/ steam to  lacquered hammers. Steam works very effectively on hammers  that have been hardened w/acetone and keytops...which  nowadays is true for most pianos.

*---------------*
I thought about mentioning that as well, but the piano is an out of the box asian.... didnt think they'd bother to drench the hammers in lacquer as well as make them too hard to begin with.  But just so... If there is any significant lacquer in the hammer... well steam wont work.... and I',m not into acetone myself :)

Cheers
RicB