<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"></style><title>Re: 1/2 punching</title></head><body> <div><font color="#000088">At 10:53 pm -0700 7/8/06, Jurgen Goering wrote:</font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <blockquote type="cite" cite><font color="#000088">I believe the key balance point is an area that has often been overlooked in regards action refinement...</font></blockquote> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088">All this discussion of 1/2 punchings etc. would not be taking place if piano makers such as Steinway took the trouble to design the balance rail properly in the first place.  My camera batteries have died, so the archive picture below</font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div align="center"><img src="cid:p06240580c0fe0e549a7c@[10.0.0.1].1.0"></div> <div><font color="#000088"> </font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088">is not as illustrative as I'd like -- I'll draw a diagram when I have more time -- but the rail here is made (in 1899 or another in 1860) in what I consider to be a proper fashion.  The bevelling of the rail in front of the natural pins commences just at the front of the pin boring and so does the trough in front of the sharp pins.  The pins are angled 4 or 5 degrees backwards -- another lost detail which Wolfenden was already regretting in many pianos in 1920.</font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088">With such a design the balance point of the keys is properly determined and the front part of the washers and punchings simply folds round the angle exerting no pressure.</font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088">By contrast a flat-topped rail, as on a 1923 Steinway 'O' I'm looking at at the moment, results in an indeterminate fulcrum for the sharp keys, which moves further forward as the key is depressed.  At least the pins are angled.</font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088">Congratulations to Frederick A. Vietor <http://tinyurl.com/goft9> who in 1931 provided Steinway with one more patent to print on their products and then drop for reasons of cost.</font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088">JD</font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> <div><font color="#000088"><br></font></div> </body> </html>