<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; = charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1505" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sarah said: "<FONT face="Times New = Roman" size=3>As I was eating Thai food the<BR>other night, I was wondering why nobody = (??) has tried using bamboo for<BR>hammer shanks -- perhaps glued into rock maple = flange parts.  Perhaps some<BR>of the Asian manufacturers???)<FONT = face=Arial size=2>"</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Sarah,</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>First, - - - Look out for that Thai = Food! It'll definately put fire in yer furnace!<G></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Second, - - -  I ran into a "home = repair" that did exactly that, on an olde upright. That one note had a strange sound = to it, so I investigated and- - - - Yikes! I replaced it with a maple shank and = the weirdness went away. However, if the whole set had bamboo for shanks, = perhaps it would be just fine?!<G></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards,</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV></FONT> <DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Joe Garrett, R.P.T.<BR>Captain, Tool Police<BR>Squares R I</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>