Hammer Reshaping

The Hammers above are out of a vertical piano from 1924. Notice the grooves and flat spots where they strike the strings.

The flat spots widen the "strike point" of the hammer dulling the tone.

The grooves act like tiny fingers and give the strings a pluck sound as the note is struck.

  

The hammers to the back of this photo have been reshaped. Note the difference in the strike point. The grooves cannot always be totally removed because you get too close to the wood core. The main point of this is to reshape the strike point.

This is the final result of a reshaping. We have exposed a new, harder layer of felt and reshaped the strike point. We have also removed most of the grooves to reduce or elimate the plucking noise.