Pro Tip 29: Filing Upright Hammers

Flat, or misshaped hammers can ruin the tone of a piano. Flat hammers can also cause strings to break! It’s very important to learn how to properly shape hammers and restore or maintain the voice of the piano. Hammers should only take minutes to reshape and not hours. In the last video Jim demonstrated his efficient method of reshaping grand piano hammers, and here he continues with the topic by showing how to reshape upright hammers. Hammers are quickly sculpted, then carefully shaped taking 1/3 of the string marks off of each side, then they are refined and made to look like new.