Hard Hammers

[Gregor _]

On the Music Fair Frankfurt I met a collegue who says that the traditional method of needeling which is tought at the German pianotech school in Ludwigsburg is not the best way for voicing. He claims that hammers should not be needled on the shoulder, better is from the side. I can´t explain that very well in English, but imagine the hammer looking from above. Usualy we needle from above and from the under side. He says it´s better from the left and right side for the beginning. Only the final fine work should be done in the traditional way. He argues that the fibres are destroyed by the traditional way. By needeling from the side the fibre interconnection is loosened instead of destroying single fibres. He is writing a book about that and I saw some excerpts in form of some powerpoint presentations where he placed some microscope pictures of fibres and fibre interconnections. Looked and sounded convincing. He constructed a tool for voicing, a special gripper. That is sold by Jahn. On the Jahn homepage you can see a picture:

http://www.pianoteile.com/

Look for *Intonierzange E&B Olbrich* at the top on the right side. Jahn writes about THE REVOLUTION in voicing. As far I understood, in the future there will be a new version available which works from 2 sides, i.e. the needles will come from both sides.

I don´t know if this is really a revolution, but it´s lesser work with that gripper. I think I will order one and try it.

Gregor

From: deanmay at pianorebuilders.com
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: RE: Hard Hammers
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:39:28 -0400

























Here is an idea for a needling tool.
Someone who has too much time on their hands and likes to modify tools could
build one for the rest of us. 

 

What if you took a small air nailer, say
for brad nails, and modified the end of the piston that pushes the nail head so
that it would accept and capture a single needle? With a single pull of the
trigger it should easily fire the needle as deep as you want it to go and the
spring loaded piston would pull it right back out. The business end of the
nailer could be set up with an adjustable foot that could control the depth of
penetration. 

 

The advantages would be the ability to get
lots of deep needle penetration on hard hammers without wearing yourself out.
It would also probably incur minimal stress on the hammer molding and glue
joint compared to traditional needling. 

 

A hand operated staple gun might also work
which would give more portability. 

 



Dean

Dean May            
cell 812.239.3359 

PianoRebuilders.com  
812.235.5272 

Terre
  Haute
 IN 
 47802



 









From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org
[mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of erwinspiano at aol.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2008
11:03 AM

To: pianotech at ptg.org

Subject: Re: Hard Hammers



 







  Hi John

  Petrified felt,  yes indeed a, Paul Bailey coined phrase.

   I've tried the Dremel many times & find it rather
useless, but hey they can't be worse. I simply marvel at the lack of interest
many piano makers have in tone as is evidenced by what they call piano hammers.
Those who purchased the inexpensive pso simply need the paradigm shift that
they got a bargain that they now need to invest in to make it a legitimate
instrument. Like getting a great car cheap that needs a tune up & further
performance enhancement. Ok....adequate car

  All our heroic voicing efforts in these cases as I see it.... are not
our problem.

 I of course, suggest a hammer transplant as usual.

  A for effort John

  Dale





>...then perhaps its your general needling approach that
needs adjusting.





 





Sometimes needles won't work at
all.  Last week I was servicing a Wurlitzer





grand with petrified hammers. A needle
would not penetrate and squeezing





with parallel pliers felt more like a
piece of wood than felt.





 





I used a damp cloth and an iron on the
shoulders and a little on the crown.





This relaxed the hammer enough to be able
to squeeze the shoulders with





parallel pliers.  It was still
plenty loud but the piercing edge was now gone.





 





I'm considering voicing with a fine drill
bit and a Dremel tool on slow speed





so as not to scorch the fibers. Maybe
this will create small gaps for the fibers





to expand into and ease the density.
It certainly couldn't hurt these HSO's.



-- 





Regards,



Jon Page





 





HSO: Hammer Shaped Object















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