After spending the afternoon voicing one of those new highly touted softer-hard hammers I recalled this comment by Wolfenden in his book which I was able to find, "Sometimes hammers are too soft at the outset or have been rendered so by over-vigorous pricking. The only remedy in such case is to consolidate the felt by warmth and pressure. [And now the crux of the entry] This should be avoided if possible as the tone produced by hammers so treated is never so satisfactory as it would have been had hardening not been required. The proper condition, which is a grading from firm interior, to softer surface, is reversed and then there is a hard skin with a softer layer behind it." While the hammers I wrestled with today didn't have much of the "softer layer behind", the hard skin as a function of cosmetic heating and pressing was more than evident and reversing that consistency was and is a battle I would prefer not to have to fight. While I can surely see the need for denser pressings for certain pianos, the direction of the consistency should remain true to form. The process that so many (if not all) of these hammers go through of pressing and baking the outer skin in order to shine them up or I don't know what destroys or certainly renders more difficult to attain, a consistency useful for what I consider good tone. While I won't name any brand out of professional courtesy, I will give my grade: F Try again. David Love www.davidlovepianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/20110718/85d84fd5/attachment.htm>
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