What of the brass agraffe? If a brass agraffe can function, I would suppose a brass screw would have the structural integrity to hold the hinge to the rim/lid. I've seen many solid brass screws all over pianos and yes they will break if you apply too much torque - so will steel pinblock screws. As long as you don't do anything foolish, brass is not a problem. William R. Monroe On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 4:27 PM, John Delacour <JD at pianomaker.co.uk> wrote: > At 15:20 -0500 19/1/10, Paul Milesi wrote: > > Just went to polish 1961 Baldwin R lid hinge screws to be re-used with new >> hinges (parts were missing). Instead of looking like brass, they look like >> steel after polishing. Would they be brass plated, rather than solid brass? >> If so, is that because of strength required, and brass is too weak a metal, >> or is it a cost-savings issue? Are all piano hinge screws like this? Can >> solid brass screws be used to put grand lid hinges on? >> > > > The reason brass screws are rarely used, even by the best makers (at least > in Europe), is that they can go brittle and break, or break through > overstraining. I never use brass screws for anything on a piano. > > You can make a steel screw look very nice by polishing the head and holding > it over a sprit lamp or gas flame until it turns a dark blue. > > JD > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20100119/531ed2bc/attachment.htm>
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