Regarding George Epple's inquiry regarding the source of the best hammers:
in my experience the finest hammers are Renner Premium Blue hammers,
available from

  Renner USA
  c/o Mr. Lloyd Meyer
  P.O. Box 1223
  17 Treadwell Lane
  Weston, CT  06883
  Phone: (203) 221-7500
  Fax: (203) 454-7866

Like all Renner action parts these are of splendid quality, and even
before voicing have the finest tone of any hammers I have heard.  They
also have lightweight mahogany moldings.  Mr. Meyer, who was formerly
president of Steinway & Sons, helped to develop these in the course of
trying to rediscover the lost secret of the transcendentally fine Steinway
pre-war hammers.  My understanding is that these Renner products are made
by the "fulling" process, and are not chemically treated for hardening the
felt, as are other hammers.  The under-felt is precision ground, another
important feature.

In the mid-1970's I asked Theodore Steinway about the rumor that Steinway
hammers were not as good as before the War.  He told me that the stocks
of Silesian wool used for hammer making were used for the boots of Nazi
soldiers, and the animals eaten for the sustenance of those soldiers.

I then asked him whether, then, Steinway hammers were not as good as
they used to be.  His reply: "I would prefer to say that ours are very
excellent hammers."

The present management implied to me that Mr. Steinway's story was
apocryphal, but they did say that it is difficult nowadays to obtain
felt which has not been chemically treated.

I have heard good things about Abel hammers as well, but I have no
personal experience with them.

Larry Broadmoore