That may have more to do with how the strings were made than the composition. I just replaced a brand new set of bass strings on a M & H A from one of our domestic bass string suppliers where half a dozen strings broke in exactly the same place on the straight wire right below the barrel of the end winding (about 1 ½ from the end of the loop). My guess is that there was some flaw in the winding process that overstressed the wire past the elastic limit at that point, causing it to fail during the chipping process. Perhaps our esteemed British bass string maker could make some comment on what might happen in the process of making the strings to create this. Will Truitt From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Michael Magness Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 12:46 AM To: pianotech at ptg.org; A440A at aol.com Subject: Re: [pianotech] Piano Wire Metal On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 8:07 AM, <A440A at aol.com> wrote: I have an opportunity to have some strings analyzed to ascertain the exact cause of why they broke(long story). In order for the analysis to be done accurately they need to know the composition metal of piano wire. I have always understood it to be tempered steel. Greetings, I don't think it is tempered, but, rather, annealed in order to rectify the work hardening that occurs when the metal is drawn through the dies. It is also curious that someone could analyse wire to determine the cause of breakage and not be able to analyse the material, itself.???? regards, Ed Foote RPT http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html ************** A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1218550342x1201216770/aol?redir=htt p://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=feb emailfooterNO62) My understanding (2nd hand) is that he only does the analysis of the break based on the composition of the metal which is usually provided to him. He is involved in Homeland security contract work and offered to do this for his father whose piano I rebuilt and had the problem string(s) on. Wound strings which broke at the loop, something I have only had happen once in my 40 years in the business prior to these. Mike -- I intend to live forever. So far, so good. Steven Wright Michael Magness Magness Piano Service 608-786-4404 www.IFixPianos.com email mike at ifixpianos.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech_ptg.org/attachments/20090212/4c7ef208/attachment.html>
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