Which is your favorite tuning hammer ? And why ?

Your views on Renner tuning hammer; Watanabe and Schaff.

Favorite hammer for the sake of value would be my old Watanabe with a 10 deg. head. It has worked flawlessly for thousands of tunings and has lasted for several decades. For the sake of ease of use, less streess, less flex, lighter weight and easier/quicker manipulation from pin to pin my carbon fiber Fujan works wonderfully. I have yet to determine whether its relatively high cost was truly worth it since I really could have continued on using the Watanabe that is now a spare.

I still have a sentimental attachment to my Schaff rosewood extension. Being something of a Luddite, it resonates...plus, it glares at me like the googly-eyed money stack on those commercials everytime I think of a Fujan...

Definitely Fujan.

-It's an extendable carbon fiber hammer.
-It is easy to feel the pin in the block and this makes pin setting faster and more accurate.
-Less weight means less fatigue.
-You can easily customize the handle and head/tip configuration.
-It is a joy to use and it looks snazzy.

Hale speed hammer. Weighs over 2 pounds. Gives me the best control when using a jerk style with tight pins.

I use three!

Main lever is a custom one made by Mike Swendesen of Calgary. Hex shaft, hot air balloon style handle, looks like #101 here, he sized the knob after asking for measurements of my hand, comfy! 12"+ long, leverage.

Reyburn CyberHammer: impact hammer for pitch raising on little verticals, sitting comfortably in front of them. Fast. I got an older titanium one.

Also use a shorter Faulk titanium with a shorter lever for looser pins where I don't need the leverage of my main lever.

I have a Watanabe extension lever out of the Pianotek catalog sitting in my re-stringing kit, for backup use. Started with it originally, but never liked the small-diameter handle for long-term use.

Oh, I see the question is "which is your favorite?"... singular. Ahem.

Could you elaborate on Fujan ? German made ? Sounds Chinese to me.

How do you pronounce the word ? Fu-Jan or Fu-Yan ?

I switched this summer to a carbon fiber hammer that Mayer Gluzman offers...saw the thing at the PTG exhibit hall...and I'm very happy...the lightness of the hammer has VERY MUCH helped my right shoulder, and the stiffness improved my unisons immediately, i.e. better speed and contact. Swithching heads/tips is super easy (they fit!) and Mayer takes a huge personal interest in making sure anybody who buys his hammer is totally happy.

RPD

Favorite: Charles Faulk CF-A. Carbon fiber and titanium, very light, very inflexible so that it responds right away to pressure without bending. This is my second Faulk hammer. Faulk is a good hammer maker and a good guy.
Old Favorite: Schaff extendable hammer, about $90 when I bought it, don't know the price now. This one has been in my kit for ten years and I expect it'll be there forever.

Daniel Levitan "Classic" tuning hammer through Pianotek. Specifically designed to fit in the Yamaha grands at A0, and with enough clearance in the Mason & Hamlins even with 7.5 degree head, slightly more flex than the Fujan supposedly although I didn't notice the difference when I switched. It's only $149, and Dan's a super-nice guy. I am holding onto the Fujan, though.

I'm using a Schaff mini lever with a Jaun shaft, head and tip
It's nice to be able to have a short lever for a fine tuning pass and still being able to be long enough for tight pins.

Daryl Durand
http://www.durandpiano.com/

1974 Hale with a 5 degree head and Watanabe 2 tip. Tens of thousands of tunings on that old boy. Also carry a Flugelbauer ball end hammer with 2 Watanabe tip. The Flugelbauer came as a package with the voicing kit, (a very nice investment) that included some unique regulation tools and 4 voicing tools plus picker. Have using the Flugel on verticals and Hale on grands.

The new Reyburn lever looks interesting (to say the least!)

http://www.reyburn.com/pub/reyburn/rct_demo/RCH_GW-1000.pdf

I like the part about "intimate impact feel". Its hard to resist at the price of $895.

It sure does. Maybe someone could mount it on their car hood. Hey Jerry?

Jahn (pronounced 'yawn'); non-extension; very lightweight and rigid with a solid head that won't break like most others. I recently refinished the handle and replaced the tip after 3 years of service.

When I obtained this hammer (from Pianotek) it gave me new life as a technician. Pain in my hand disappeared overnight. I have no doubts that it was the best tool upgrade I ever made.

The Fujan would be just as good, if not better. The Jahn costs about $100.

I checked Pianoteksupply.com it only shows Watanabe and Gooseneck.

Stay away from goosenecks unless you need it for a specific application.

At Pianotek, the Jahn Ball is TH-7B and the Jahn Lightweight is Th-6 and the pear-handle is TH-5P.

Tuning tools

I'm partial NPI to the Charles Faulk carbon CF-A ... Like a ROCK!

Gotta say, they sure have some screwy names for these tuning hammers. "fujan." "Gooseneck." Bend over and let me try my gooseneck on ya. "Watanabe." We all "Watanabe" be this and "Watanabe" be that.

My favorite one is the one that I own not the one you own.

LOL.... just like trying to describe to a customer that his or her hammer butt needs new leather so the jack works smoother.......oh the names assoc. with pianos....

I've tried most of the levers out there except Mr. Faulk's lever.
I've used the Watanabe, Yamaha, Hale, several impact levers, Fujan, Keith Bowman hand made from Renner but I just ended up using the standard Schaff Rosewood Extension Lever. Five degree head with a watanabe tip. Nothing fancy just plain and traditional.

I suppose you used the Hale just for the Hale of it? I won't even go there with the Faulk tuning hammer!!!! But, I'd "Renner" a guess it would be way off into left field and may "impact" the wrong notions and someone might end up getting the "Schaff." t.

Hey, hey, settle down over there, I think you've already got one hijacked thread here already!

[Diane, don't you even get started...]

Oops!

Have any tuners with lots of experience found any benefit from getting impact levers, or are they better suited for newcomers to the trade? I often use an impact style of tuning with a normal lever under certain conditions, but as a tool designed for impact, is there a benefit to someone who uses the style already, or is it a whole new learning curve that sets an experienced tuner back a few paces?

Emmery:

I had considered one, but decided it would be a pain when the rendering is very light and needs to be finessed.

But have you ever left the hammer sit on the pin a little sloppily and impacted that way? There are times when this can help.

I have had some really small pins occasionally that lets the hammer drop right down to the coil and still sit loose giving the same effect. I'm not too happy about it because if the fits not good I get the impression that I'm putting some serious wear and tear on my tip slopping around.

I knew a fellow years ago in the States that had a piece of velcro on the back of the tuning lever head that he attached a small chunk of chalk with velcro glued to it when he tuned. If he came across a pin that he regarded loose in the block, he would flip the lever over and mark it with the chalk. When he returned to tune the next time, if that string was noticeably more out than the rest he would point it out to the customer and ask if they wanted to get it fixed.

I know this is a really dumb question but I tried several search terms and didn't hit anything.

Why do you all call it a hammer? Kinda looks like a wrench to me.

I've heard that the term 'hammer' came from method of hitting the handle of the lever in order to adjust the tuning pin.

What's funny though, is that my uncle, a tool and die maker, also referred to my tuning tool as a 'hammer' long before he knew that was a term that we used for it.

I wonder if tool junkies, in general, just like to use the word 'hammer' to describe their primary tool.

Kind of like the musician referring to his instrument as an "axe".

It kind of looks like a hammer, a chunk of metal on the end of a handle. If dropped on your toe it does the same damage as a hammer would. If you drop it on your toe because you have been drinking excessively you could say "I got hammered" and kill two birds with one stone.

On a more serious note, etymological history of the term "hammer" seems to originate in the word "hamarr" which meant a crag or a stone. This predates even farther to the connection of tool designed with a stone head. So I think the shape of it is the reason for calling it a tuning hammer. Not much different than a tuning fork not really being used as a fork, but resembling one in its shape. Maybe some real old timers here can comment on whether it was originally called a hammer and whether we are using the term more or less as time has gone by.

If you think that piano terminology is bad, I used to work at a plumbing supply warehouse where customers regularly came in and asked for 8" galvanized nipples. (Get your mind out of the gutter!)

Terminology can be funny when people are not used to their use, reminds me of this funny joke..

There was a not so bright DIYer that walked into a lumberyard and asked for a 4X2. The lumber guy asked, "you mean a 2X4 don't you?" The guy walked out to his truck and talked to his helper and came back in and said "Yeah, a 2X4". The lumber guy throws it on his saw, pulls out his measuring tape and asks, "How long do you want it?" to which the DIYer goes back outside to his buddy in the truck, comes back in a minute later and says "Well...a pretty long time, were building an outhouse with it".

They used to use the other side of the tuning lever head to tap in tuning pins. Some of the traditional levers still have a flat part opposite the tip. Also setting a pin is really done by jerking and sort of tapping the tuning pin into place.

I can't help but think of an old Three Stooges episode.

They are working as short order cooks in a diner.

Moe says "hand me the egg cutters."

They hand him a pair of scissors, and he cuts the eggs, shells and all, into the pan.

Ever since my family has called scissors by the title eggcutters.

It takes a wench to tighten the loose nut behind the wheel, unless he's already hammered...