custom hammers

[Ron Nossaman]

> I took this action in for rebuild, the previous "job" (can you call it 
> that) left a bit to be desired.  I swear, it looks like it had to take 
> four times as long to "checker" these hammers so desperately wrong than 
> to just do it right.  

 From the shape of the divots (lenticular, deeper in the 
center), it was done with a small wheel. Probably a Dremel (or 
Dermal, if you're not careful). Checkering is unnecessary if 
the tails are correctly shaped, and the backchecks survive.


Nice glue collar though, eh?

Check out Steinway glue "collars". They look similar, only not 
as sloppy. Instead of making a neat collar, Steinway uses a 
hide glue that (with appropriate additives?) dries to about 
the color of the hammer molding so the mess isn't obvious 
unless you look closely. Works just fine, and saves them a lot 
of time.
Ron N