Bridge caps

[ANRPiano@AOL.COM]

List,

I have a couple questions which have been bouncing around the back of my 
brain for a while without arriving at any answers.  Here goes:

1) I have noticed a large amount of variation regarding the string contact 
area on the top of bridges.  I am not one to slavishly repeat a manufacture's 
or a factory worker's poor design or poor execution. So I have often wondered 
but never found an answer; what is, if the is any, the optimal amount of 
contact surface?

2) A corollary would be should this contact surface be centered on the cap?  
I have seen them all over the place with various degrees of splitting in all 
cases.

3) Do we really need to grind off the tops of the pins for anything other 
than an even appearance?  Those buggers get sharp, I know, I have the scares 
to prove it.

Thanks 

Andrew Remillard