<HTML><HTML>In a message dated 10/18/2004 4:46:= 17 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ilvey@sbcglobal.net writes: <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT= : 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">How the heck did you bend a spo= on bending tool? </BLOCKQUOTE> Greetings,             &nbs= p; Well... I think that the very first piano I used it on, had really hard s= poons, which may have initially weakened the tool early in it's life.             After tha= t....it sort of got gradually weaker. The spoons in 100+ year old pianos see= m very hard, for some reason.  I think the integrity of the tool was fu= rther compromised with each sucessive old piano with hard spoons that I work= ed on.              One= day, I went to bend spoons, I could feel something bending (satisfying feel= ing to think you're adjusting/correcting) but when I removed the tool and ch= ecked the amount of ...damper lift etc...I noticed no change in adjustment. =             &nbs= p; The bender wasn't doing it's job AT ALL, even though I had the thing righ= t at the base of the spoon!   Then, I puzzlingly, looked at the to= ol and to my dismay, noticed that IT was bent.  (Can you just picture t= his?...whenever I look like this, my sister asks, "Did you do another Lucy R= icardo") How un-nerving that was. I felt so out of control.      Julia, Reading, PA          &nbsp= ;   </HTML>