<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Jul 26, 2008, at 8:35 PM, Jon Page wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><blockquote type="cite" cite="" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "><font face="Arial" color="#000000">and found that I obviously wouldn't be able </font></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" cite="" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "><font face="Arial" color="#000000">to use my normal cranking technique: just hold the pin between </font></blockquote><blockquote type="cite" cite="" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; "><font face="Arial" color="#000000">(leather covered) thumb and index finger.</font></blockquote><div><br></div><div>I brace the pin on the first knuckle of my index finger as the thumb</div><div>forces the becket bend and coil.</div></div></span></blockquote><br><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(20, 79, 174); -webkit-text-stroke-width: -1; ">Regards,</span></div><div>Jon Page</div></div></span></blockquote></div><br><div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Hmm, I can do that, but I'm not sure I want to do it 225+ times during a whole restring, or even a partial restring. So I decided to make a bigger one: cut .5" off the bottom of a pin, and sawed all the way up to the becket. It's soft metal, so that's not so hard to do, maybe a minute with a sharp hacksaw and vigorous technique (start with a triangular file making a score for the blade to follow). I sawed the kerf at a slight angle clockwise to the becket hole, so I hit it with the edge of the kerf around the middle of the hole. This leaves a little "slot" that holds the wire in place a little more positively. And then you make a slight turn and it slips down the slot.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The hacksaw kerf wasn't wide enough for larger sizes of music wire so I had to expand it. I used those metal sanding files Pianotek carries, starting with the flexible and moving on the the stiff one. That expanded the slot enough to allow a wire to slide freely (a bit of work). And then ground the corners smooth so it will turn freely between finger and thumb. Now that I think of it, I remember a local colleague showing something very similar many years back, and me thinking "that's a heck of a lot of work just to be able to slip a coil, when I can pry it in very little time." But restringing a whole piano, that little bit of time saved per coil will add up.<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>