<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Jul 8, 2008, at 8:18 AM, Ken Zahringer wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div> <font face="Garamond"><span style="font-size:14.0px">I only have expertise in one area here, but I’ll share it. Bluing is a rust preventative surface treatment for steel. It was once the most common means of rust prevention, but now is used only occasionally, mainly for gun barrels and tuning pins. Technological advances have made plating and stainless steel much cheaper than they used to be so they are now the norm, except in applications where those materials don’t work very well – like gun barrels and tuning pins.<br> <br> Regards,<br> Ken Z.<br> -- <br> Ken Zahringer, RPT<br> University of Missouri<br> School of Music<br> </span></font> </div> </blockquote></div><br><div>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). </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>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.</div><div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Regards,</div><div>Fred Sturm</div><div>University of New Mexico</div><div><a href="mailto:fssturm@unm.edu">fssturm@unm.edu</a></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></div><br><div></div></div></body></html>