Chris asks:
>
> I have to confess that I don't have much experience with metal springs used
> in jacks for the tongues. Personally I use hog bristles (black boar) but now
> I have to revise a spinet that uses jacks with metal springs. I suppose that
> the metal used for strings is not suitable for making springs? If not what
> kind of metal would be recommended?
Leaving aside the largely unrelated issue of Italian-style brass leaf springs…. some years ago, before the advent of PEEK and in frustration at the enormous amount of time invested in picking through boar bristles to find just one that was “just right” for each jack, I used brass music wire in wooden jacks drilled exactly as one does for bristle. In my case, it was a piece of ordinary .33mm (≈.013”) Malcolm Rose “English Brass,” with the arc from the spool-memory facing the jack. I would slide the little piece of wire up through the rear exit hole designed for bristle, and ignore the secondary relief/securing hole exiting in front, used by bristle, then I would secure the wire with a drop of hot sealing wax subsequently smoothed-off.
But a lot of older and revival instruments seem I think to have used something as stiff as spring-steel wire. IN any event, even the Rose brass would work fine, as would just about any music wire, even very soft stuff. You’re trying to return tongues efficiently, not kill a mouse.
Note that Italian leaf springs can be made very effectively using only half-hard, extremely thin (.005”) strips of brass shim-stock, so there’s no need for any thing particularly stiff.
The best policy will be to study the metal springs already in place and attempt to duplicate them as closely as you can.
By the way, those Rose-brass wire springs have done marvelous duty in my own instrument after Vaudry for going on 22 years now, their only real downside being that like any metal springs, including the historical leaf-springs, they are very easy to ruin by being mishandled.
Best,
owen
____________________________________
Owen Daly Early Keyboard Instruments
557 Statesman St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
http://www.dalyharpsichords.com
(503)-362-9396
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