Fred,
I've experimented with lanolin in hammers a little. I also ran into the
problem of finding a solvent it would dissolve into. What has worked the
best is turpentine. I also like it because it's more of a natural product
than most other solvents. The lanolin I used was pure liquid lanolin, that
is already in a pourable state. A health food company named "NOW" sells it
online. I mixed the two in a small plastic cup, covered it and set it on the
shelf for a while. It doesn't appear to separate. It is pretty strong
smelling, however!
I've noticed on old sets of hammers from early 20th century, that the felt
doesn't seem to hold up very well. The string cuts develop much more
quickly. I figure this is due to the shorter, less resilient felt that has
been revealed by extensive filing. It also seems to be related to age - the
fibers seem to be more brittle or break down more easily. I had a chance to
as Jack Brand, owner of Wurzen felt factory, about how felt ages. He seemed
to think it got better with age, but I haven't seen this to be the case.
Anyways, I thought that perhaps adding the lanolin might strengthen the old
felt and make it hold up a little better. I can't say I've had any clear
results yet. Sometimes I wish I had my own R&D department with people who
have the time to really look into some of these ideas we come up with!
Ryan
On Sat, Sep 24, 2011 at 4:14 PM, Fred Sturm wrote:
>
>
> McGavern: Would you elaborate, please, on how you would use lanolin over
> softner to address rock hard hammers?
>
> The short answer is a solution of about 4-6 : 1, lacquer thinner :
> lanolin, applied either in the shoulders, to aid needling, or to the crowns,
> to give a somewhat subtle but noticeable improvement in tone (takes the edge
> off, makes the tone rounder).
>
> The longer answer is that I have been experimenting for a long time with
> hammers that are difficult to voice. Some are pressed too hard, others are
> not all that dense, but difficult to insert needles. Both are very
> problematic. I have tried various steaming methods, voicing pliers, voice
> grips (vice grips ground off), extra heavy needling tools to pound the
> needles in, dremel drills with a chucked needle to rotate it into the felt,
> and other things as well. I have not been satisfied with any of these - I
> get results, but they are not as controlled as I want them to be, and
> definitely not as good as a quality needling job.
>
> So I decided to experiment with wetting the shoulders of hammers. First I
> tried alcohol of different sorts. No help. Then I added fabric softener.
> When I got to about 4:1 alcohol : softener, I found that in most instances
> this made difficult hammers voice-able with normal methods, and often made
> impossible hammers nice to voice. This was particularly so with hammers that
> aren't overly dense, but resist the needle penetration and hold onto the
> needles when you want to pull them out (true of all my 1960s Steinway B
> hammers at UNM, for example: try to press needles in and the surface
> dimples, the felt gives, but the needles won't penetrate).
>
> I tried to find out about the makeup of softener. I have been using Downy
> unscented as the one most available with the least additives, but who knows
> what is in there. I evaporated some in a jar lid, and the remains were not
> too disturbing (not very much left after evaporation for one thing).
> Investigation on line indicates that the active agent seems to be some kind
> of salt (there are different options), that acts by neutralizing static
> electric charge. That static is what makes the nap on towels very hard
> rather than soft and pliant: they are held tightly together by
> electromagnetism. So I reason that this is not a bad sort of thing to add to
> hammer felt, at least in principle. The felting process creates mechanical
> joining of the fibers, by the cumulative effect of mild interlocking of the
> scales of individual fibers. Static electric charge might effect the
> insertion and withdrawal of needles directly, and might also tend to
> rigidify the structure of the felt. In any case, experimentation shows
> application of softener is effective, and I have yet to see any negative
> results.
>
> Still, I have my qualms - I'd feel a lot better about it if I could just
> get some known active ingredients rather than a mystery formulation. So I
> continued thinking about other possibilities. One that came to mind was
> lanolin. Wool was washed VERY clean, scoured with harsh chemicals,
> particularly in the middle of the 20th century as I understand. Wool
> normally has lanolin associated with it, I guess a skin secretion of the
> sheep. It is a waxy substance, that helps make wool stay pliant among other
> things (and is used for hand lotions, etc.) I have heard that some quality
> hammer makers used felt that had lanolin added back to the wool after it was
> cleaned. And then the Abel Natural hammers came out.
>
> Abel natural felt is cleaned with less harsh chemicals. I suspect that
> lanolin is also added back. It is definitely easier to needle those hammers
> than other Abel hammers, felt density being equal. So I thought it would
> make sense to try to add back lanolin to existing hammer felt, certainly
> worth a try. I got some lanolin, the most "natural" I could find (it comes
> in all sorts of varieties, chemically altered in many ways. I got some at a
> health food store). I needed to dissolve it. It comes as a waxy material
> like slightly melted beeswax. I tried several solvents, starting with
> alcohols and acetone. No luck. Lacquer thinner dissolved it with quite a bit
> of stirring. I forget what else I tried, but I figured lacquer thinner was
> fine. As to what actually dissolves it, I don't know, as lacquer thinner off
> the shelf is a formulation of things like toluene, xylene, and other
> hydrocarbons. Probably one of them is the active solvent.
>
> I discovered that I could mix lanolin instantly with lacquer thinner by
> melting it first. It doesn't take much heat. I just heated some water in a
> coffee cup and used that as a water bath for a small receptacle of lanolin,
> and it melted quite readily.
>
> Application to the shoulders, enough to penetrate as deep as you want to
> insert the needles, where you want to insert them, improves needle
> penetration a great deal, in my experience so far, which includes hard
> pressed Pearl River upright hammers as well as Yamaha C2, 1960s Steinway,
> and a few others. I started with 1960s Hamilton as my guinea pig. Waiting
> maybe 30 minutes between application and needling is a good idea - the
> effect grows. On Hamiltons and one or two others I have also applied it to
> the crown, with positive results. The caveat is that there is some felt
> discoloration. Filing makes that pretty much unnoticeable, but I probably
> wouldn't use it on a high profile instrument, just for aesthetic reasons.
> Other than that, I have been very happy with the results to date. Alan
> McCoy, who has also tried it, has told me he is very pleased with it as
> well.
>
> I have only done this for a couple years, so my experience is still
> somewhat limited. I would like to hear reports of other people's experiences
> to compare notes.
>
> -------------------------------------------
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
>
fssturm@unm.edu
> "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination." -
> Einstein
> -------------------------------------------
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