[CAUT] Tuning Pin Questions

[Kendall Ross Bean]

Ken~
 
Thanks for your elucidating and enlightening comments, and the wiki article
reference.
 
I am starting to wonder, based on comments received from yourself, and other
technicians on the listserve, whether the nickel-blued pins don't have some
dye or color added to the threads to sort of add "sizzle to the steak" - if
you know what I mean.
 
It certainly doesn't look like the normal blueing process color, which is
closer to a blue-black (Maybe "midnite blue?")
 
It's possible some technicians, when told they were blued pins, asked
"where's the blue?" (Where's the beef?)
 
~Kendall Ross Bean
 
PianoFinders
www.pianofinders.com
kenbean at pianofinders.com

  _____  

From: Ken Zahringer [mailto:ZahringerK at missouri.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 10:13 AM
To: College and University Technicians
Subject: Re: [CAUT] Tuning Pin Questions


Bluing is actually a chemical treatment.  The steel is immersed in a
water-based chemical solution at or near the boiling point.  The hot
solution promotes the chemical reaction, but it isn't hot enough for the
heat itself to do anything to the steel.  Look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluing_(steel) for a good description of the
process.

There have been "cold blue" products on the market for some time.  Gun
owners commonly use them for touch-up.  As I understand it, these products
produce the same chemical reaction on the surface as hot blue, just not as
effectively since they operate at room temperature.  I always figured the
pin blue stuff that Schaff sells was this sort of thing, but I have never
used it.  I have no clue what the heck in on the nickel/blued thread pins.
That's a color not found in nature.

Regards,
Ken Z.


On 7/8/08 11:40 AM, "Fred Sturm" <fssturm at unm.edu> wrote:



Ah, but is that blue color on the threads of the nickel plated pins actually
"bluing" or just a dye?Real bluing is a heat treatment, yes? I think we've
all seen the Wurlitzer style "bluing" (a dye painted on the pins and
dripping onto coils and sometimes plate), and I remember being able to
purchase the stuff (probably ink). I am not convinced that tuning pins we
get today are ever blued (true blued?) after threads are cut. So the
treatment is only cosmetic, for the part of the pin that sticks out of the
block, and doesn't affect the threads (hey, I could be wrong, but that color
on those threads makes me awfully suspicious). 
I used to get some pins from Schaff that actually did seem to be "true
blued" on the entire surface of the pin after threads were made. The threads
were a bit deeper than what we get today. I don't know if those are still
available.

Regards,
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico


        fssturm at unm.edu

-- 
Ken Zahringer, RPT
University of Missouri
School of Music

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