Size isn’t everything in the piano world….Because, though these hammers had a very good felt length and the correct width, they were far too HEAVY.

This early model O Steinway also lives in a Romney Marsh church, so stiff keys and sluggish everything else needed as much help as I could offer.

Marshland Steinway

With keys already loaded to the hilt with lead, the only way forward was to lose as much of the hammer wood as possible. Time to get out the old sander…..

Hammer Tail Shaping/Reducing

It wasn’t perfect – but after reducing the hammer wood, I managed to weigh out the keys to 48g. This is certainly better than the 65g + they were clunking at before!!