hitch pin loop tool

[John Delacour]

At 14:34 -0800 11/2/08, David Ilvedson wrote:

>I have always duplicated hitchpin loops on single strings with my 
>round needle nose and a vice-grip.  It seems to me there was a 
>simple tool using a dowel and a screw?   I'm talking about field 
>work here.

Field work or no, just a headless nail or screw about an inch long 
sticking out of the end of a length of 1" x 1" hardwood is what I've 
always used.  If I'm stringing a piano with all eyes, I clamp this to 
the treble side of the (grand) piano.  Pull the wire tightly round 
the pin so that when it is released the free end is 3" long or more 
and at a right angle to the long end. Then grip the circle tightly 
using smooth-jawed pliers (the jaws of mine are also about 3/4" 
broad) and turn the finishing coils.

Doing it this way you have to allow for the closing up of the eye 
when the string is pulled to pitch and knocked close.  A firm in 
London I know used an L-shaped pin and put on the finishing coils in 
one movement with the forming of the loop, and I have tried this but 
find it more uncomfortable and less reliable.  Either way there will 
be closing of the wire round the hitchpin, and you can choose a nail 
that will give you the final loop diameter you want.

Let me know if you want pictures.

JD