<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16544" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial" bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> <DIV> <DIV> Just changing the thread name.  Dale</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>Over there David Stanwood has a good deal of knowledge specific to your <BR>question.  Andre here in Europe also has built up a good deal of direct <BR>knowledge.  I believe Stanwood often does a class about hammer felt, how <BR>its made, what grading is about etc.<BR><BR>One thing I believe is part of how the grading of the felt is determined <BR>is the fineness of the individual felt fibres themselves.  Higher grade <BR>hammer felt is finer stuff.  More processing in this regard means <BR>seeling out thicker stands and as such will not affect the degree of <BR>lanolin left in the felt.  The elasticity in the individual fibres for <BR>any raw material will be unchanged as well.   What will be changed is <BR>the number of fibres in any given finished felt block.  At least thats <BR>my understanding at present. Stanwood may volunteer more on the subject.<BR><BR>In the end tho... I have the sensation that it is easily as much the <BR>pressing process that molds the felt into the hammer that is important <BR>as much as the ground floor quality of the felt itself.  I cant lay any <BR>specific scientific data on the table, but Renner Wurzen II hammers are <BR>much nicer to work with and produce much nicer results then their Wurzen <BR>I hammers do.  I also understand that Yamaha chooses Wurzen II for their <BR>most expensive line and uses I for the rest at present, tho I still have <BR>not been able to confirm directly from Yamaha that this is so.<BR><BR>Talk to Stanwood about felt.<BR><BR>RicB<BR><BR><BR>    Can anyone comment about different grades of felt generally, Wurzen felt<BR>    specifically.  Does a higher grade mean more processing<BR>    necessarily?  If so,<BR>    does it also mean less lanolin left in the felt, less elasticity for<BR>    in the<BR>    fibers or anything else that might be considered a detriment?  It<BR>    seems to<BR>    me that higher grade may not necessarily produce a more resilient hammer<BR>    (felt), or better tone.  Any comments?<BR><BR>    David Love<BR>    davidlovepianos at comcast.net<BR>    www.davidlovepianos.com</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">See what's new at <A title="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" href="http://www.aol.com?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001170" target="_blank">AOL.com</A> and <A title="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" href="http://www.aol.com/mksplash.adp?NCID=AOLCMP00300000001169" target="_blank">Make AOL Your Homepage</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>