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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: =
black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=erwinpiano@msn.com href="mailto:erwinpiano@msn.com">DALE =
ERWIN</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A =
title=pianotech@ptg.org
href="mailto:pianotech@ptg.org">pianotech</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> October 15, 2001 8:17 =
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: Speaking of =
hammers...</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Del</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> Point well taken. What I do know is that at least =
with my
particular hammer supplier a 14lb. weight felt on mahog. molding =
is
lighter than the 16 lb. version which indicates a denser felt. =
Yeah I
know the wood weight can vary but I've done this a few times and know =
what to
expect. Know thy hammer supplier.</DIV>
<DIV> Maybe suppliers should refer to there hammers as light =
medium and
heavy ,at least there would be less confusion....naaaaaaahh
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 =
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 size=3>As =
you say, you know
what to expect and it helps to know your supplier. Still, the obsolete =
sizing
methods prevail. The current 14# and 16# designations are meaningless =
and most
everybody in the industry knows it. Yet they continue to use them. =
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 =
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 size=3>Even =
your suggestion
of light, medium and heavy--while possibly an improvement --still leaves =
much to
be desired. What are the standards? Light compared to what? Heavy =
compared to
what? Are we going to measure each hammer in the set and come up with =
curve per
Stanwood's chart? I can't see any manufacturer ever doing that. Or are =
we going
weigh the whole set? And then, is this the set of 88? Or the set with a =
few
spares tossed in? Even that is not currently standardized. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 =
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 size=3>As a =
start perhaps
the manufacturer could weigh just those hammers he intends to be #1, =
#30, #60
and #88 and correlate those into Stanwood's curves. If the manufacturing =
tolerances are reasonable random samples might well be sufficient. At =
this
point, I'd be really happy with just that. Though we'd still be some =
distance
from ideal at least it would be one small step in the right direction.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 =
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 size=3>And =
then, to be
meaningful there must also be some indication of resilience. With a =
resilience
standard at least you'd know if you were ordering light rocks or heavy
marshmallows.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080 =
size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face="Lucida Sans" color=#000080
size=3>Del</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>