<HTML>In a message dated 7/16/2002 9:39:56 PM Pacific Daylight Time, yardbird@pop.vermontel.net writes:              Bill       Totally agree, the crown on N.Y. must be treated but the shoulder and under strike point applications are preludes to the final Solution applied to the crown    I would suggest clear Plexiglas dissolved in acetone. It takes a few days for it to melt initially into suspension. Far more flexible and seems to have the flexibility of its own as you seek. Used in enough to know that even when poured on heavy it doesn't get brittle like a too thick dose of a lacquer or keytop solution. Needles still penetrate it's very forgiving. You may even have trouble getting enough bite in certain hammers which means it's not that stiff a material unless abused. Sounds like this could work for you. >>>>>>>>>>>>Dale Erwin>.... <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> All this talk of embalming hammers would lead one to wonder why anyone would ever want to dope a crown. Well, with NY Steinway hammers, unless your pianist likes their piano warm and fuzzy, it's inevitable. You can firm up the shoulders all you want, even including under the strike point. But the hammer and the string are a pair of springs, and the best sound comes when the reach their maximum deformation simultaneously. Power and projection from a NY Steinway hammer will not emerge until the strikepoint fibers have been stiffened (and their bending under force slowed). And if I'm obliged to stiffen, I'd like to stiffening resin to have its own elasticity to contribute to the hammer/string event. </BLOCKQUOTE>      Bill Ballard </HTML>