Fw: Hexigrip pinblock

[Ron Nossaman]

>This notion of the 'little teeth' having anything to do with this
>performance is marketing hype of the worst kind.  Not only is it misleading,
>it is downright untrue.  And most of those using this spiel to sell
>something know it.
>
>Consider.  If, in fact, the 'little teeth' actually did dig in a resist the
>counterclockwise rotation of the pin in the pinblock, what would really be
>happening when you tuned the piano?  Right, those 'little teeth' would be
>tearing the hell out of the pinblock and you would be literally destroying
>the block by the very act of tuning.  You could only turn the pin clockwise
>in the block without causing extensive damage to the wood fiber.  Yes, the
>very same wood fiber you are depending on to hold torque on this pin for the
>next two or three hundred years.
>
>No.  Those 'little teeth' are the natural residue of the machine process
>that cuts the threads.  They are very tiny shards of metal that could be
>easily wire-brushed off and the pin would work just as well.  That's it,
>that is all that they are.  No mystery.  No secret manufacturing technique.
>Nothing but marketing deception.  These shards are bunged and mangled out of
>the way as the pin is driven into the block and any residual 'little teeth'
>that might remain after this torture treatment are mashed flat or torn off
>when the piano is chipped and tuned to pitch for the first time.  With the
>string removed the torque required to turn these pins either clockwise or
>counterclockwise is the same.  Thank goodness.
>
>Del


Now what I didn't have time to go into in any detail this morning is that
the cut thread pins are less prone to the snapping and jumping when turned
because of the thread roughness. That's what I was addressing. A couple of
other folks have also said that this was just an accidental side benefit of
the manufacturing process, and I don't doubt that a bit, but it is a
noticeable performance benefit -  however arrived at. The story of the
anti-reverse killer teeth is, marketing sheep dip of the worst kind. No
argument there. If marketing had said anything about the performance
improvement of the manufacturing method in the pianos being sold with these
pins, instead of leaving it to the marketing types of competing brands to
generate negative garbage, maybe we wouldn't be hearing stories about
one-way pins by now.

Forget that last sentence, I seem to be hallucinating.

Ron N