I don't like steam because it does too much too fast. Plus it's a nuisance to set up, and you can get steam burns from it. These are interesting statements. Perhaps it's the way I do it, but I've never had a burn from the steam. I use the electric hammer head smoothing tool, (p. 46 Schaff), with a wet cloth. I judiciously apply heat to the wet cloth on the hammers, which gives me great control over how much steam is transferred to the hammer. With the wet cloth over a section of hammers, I just barely touch the iron to the cloth, and I hear a little ssttt. I then remove the cloth, put the action back in the piano, and listen to the sound. If the tone is still too bright, I repeat the application as needed, even on individual hammers. If I've over done it, I use the smoothing tool without the wet cloth and the tone brightens up immediately. But there just isn't enough steam to get burned. The only time I've burned myself is when I stupidly put my bare finger on top of the heated brass head, to add a little pressure. As far as the set up is concerned, yes, I have to get out the tool, and an extension chord, and find a water source for my bowl of water into which to dip the cloth, and of course wait perhaps 5 minutes for the iron to heat up. But perhaps for some people that's too much of a nuisance. Wim -----Original Message----- From: Susan Kline <skline at peak.org> To: pianotech <pianotech at ptg.org> Sent: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 10:22 am Subject: Re: [pianotech] Hammer softener I like using pliers just a little, but only on particularly mean and defiant hammers, and only down where the shoulders are big. You are changing the whole inner structure of the hammer, with no way to return it to its prior condition. For the top octave, which usually ends up over-hardened, I'd suggest FIRST trying as little vodka as you can get to come out of the little plastic squeeze bottle, directly into the string grooves, and NO needling. The felt is usually hard as rocks up there, and also very thin. It's not going to fluff up properly whatever needling you do. If you keep poking it you can easily end up with torn felt full of holes which are still surrounded by rock-hard wool. Whatever softener you use, and wherever in the scale, I think you should start with an absolutely minimal amount and work up gradually, evaluating tone as you go. Never just douse hammers with it! You can end up totaling them in a very short amount of time. If you use so much steam or softeners or alcohol that you end up with cotton balls on sticks, all swollen out of shape, you have done a Bad Thing. I don't like steam because it does too much too fast. Plus it's a nuisance to set up, and you can get steam burns from it. I think that anything steam can do can be done in a much more controllable way with alcohol. (100 proof ...) I use vodka because it's the least toxic and the amounts needed are so minimal that cost shouldn't really be a factor. ... Well, I use ethyl alcohol --"Clear Spring"-- from the liquor store diluted to 100 proof. The vodka does not flush out solids (except it might a little if the hardener used was shellac, which is one reason I really like shellac.) What it hopefully does is wet the wool fibers which have been packed down in the string grooves, which then kink and get fluffy. If you've ever tried to launder a pure wool sweater in hot water, you'll understand. It's not like you want to take all the bite out of the tone in the top octave -- you just want a small amount of cushioning on top of the hard core to take away the worst of the harshness. Might the pastor be receptive to the idea of putting a thick pile rug directly underneath the piano? Susan Kline On 12/6/2010 10:33 AM, David Boyce wrote: Would it be worth cautiously trying a little "pliers voicing", with a nice clean pair of parallel-nosed pliers? If it proves effective, it could be a nice fast method. Best regards, David Boyce. I'm not sure exactly who did the work, but the treble hammers are pretty much rocks. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20101206/e3e9fae4/attachment.htm>
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