Nature of tuning pins, why technicians prefer blue

[Kendall Ross Bean]

Michael~
 
Thank you so much for your insights and your comprehensive answers. They
confirmed a lot of the things I had suspected.
 
Now here we finally have firsthand evidence of why tuning pins need
threads,-- --a pin "as smooth as a baby's butt" does not hold. Period.
 
Also that rolled threads truly did exist at one point in time; unlike the
unicorn they weren't just a fantasy or a figment of the imagination, or
something that the tuning pin manufacturers and piano manufacturers dreamed
up as a straw man to beat with cut threads.
 
And last but not least, the real reason technicians insist that blued pins
are better! (they are cheaper!) ;-).
 
And yes, some experiments I did today with a handkerchief and various and
sundry tuning pins I encountered in the shop, convinced me that you are
correct in saying that all (new) cut thread pins exhibit this "reverse-
thread" characteristic. (However, I also discovered that it tends to vanish
relatively quickly once the pins are pounded into the pinblock and turned a
few times, and works far better on handkerchiefs (which have very fine
threads that catch)  than it does on maple pinblocks (which simply make
sawdust when exposed to the same "teeth").
 
~Kendall
 
PianoFinders
www.pianofinders.com <http://www.pianofinders.com/> 
e-mail: kenbean at pianofinders.com
 
Connecting Pianos and People
 
"We conclude that it works far better on paper than it does on wood." 
    - A company that had just built a prototype of a new woodworking tool
from the inventor's plans.
 
 
 
Hi Kendall,

I don't begin to know the answers to all of your questions but I can
answer some and give my opinion on others.

In answer to your questions number 1 & 2 the color, IMHO, is different
because the pins are blued, then plated, then the threads are cut removing
the plate leaving the blued pin underneath showing. Since it was heated(for
the plating process) I'm surmising that the color change occurred due to the
heating.
The answer to number 4 is they are cheaper! <g>

Regarding number 5 & 6, I ran across a piano once years ago with rolled
threads, they looked as if they had been stamped onto the pin but they could
have been rolled, I suppose. It was a Jesse French spinet, it didn't hold
tune very well, it felt very mushy and the center tuning pin of middle C
wouldn't hold even after a thorough dosing with PinTite, this was 20 years
ago before we thought of using CA on loose blocks. I removed the pin and
discovered it hadn't been threaded, it was as smooth as a baby's butt over
2/3's of it's length and only partially threaded on the upper 1/3 near the
becket. If I hadn't believed in threaded pins prior to that, it convinced me
to never doubt them.

Finally number 8, the reverse cut pin. I asked a friend, my mentor about
them once and his response was very illuminating. He told me that all cut
thread pins exhibit this characteristic, it's inherent in the way the metal
is cut. Kawai just decided to make a selling feature out of it. Take any cut
thread tuning pin have someone hold it tightly with a piece of cloth and
attempt to turn it in reverse, you will find the same thing, you can't turn
it.

So with that in mind read Larry Fine and Art Reblitz's contentions with a
grain of salt since it would be true of any piano with cut thread pins.

Good luck with your article,
Mike
-- 
Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch
excellence.
Vince Lombardi

Michael Magness
Magness Piano Service
608-786-4404
www.IFixPianos.com
email mike at  <https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives>
ifixpianos.com
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