Steinway & Sons’ piano hammer felt is made of premium Merino wool from Australia and Africa. In the past ten years, we have greatly improved the wool’s quality: while we previously used a blend of wool fibers of varying lengths, we now use 100% long-length, thus improving the interlocking nature of the fibers and giving the felt increased overall strength. We have also improved the carding and pressing processes of the raw wool, achieving a much more stable and consistent hammer felt.

In recent years, we have improved on the design of the Steinway hammer to incorporate a denser and purer hammer felt. The benefits of this new design permit us to achieve optimal hammer firmness without excessive use of chemical hardeners. This naturally harder hammer felt produces an enhanced “singing” tone in the piano by permitting the long-length fibers to remain undisturbed, all while preserving the felt’s natural barbs and lanolin.