<blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote">If you take patented steel wire beyond its elastic   limit, it will neck and break, perhaps right now, perhaps tomorrow   but very soon.</blockquote><div> The point when when you go from "elastic" to "plastic" is when the wire permanently changes shape, never to return, right? So I would say that when a string bends around the tuning pin, and for sure when it dives into the becket, it changes it's shape for good. If you slightly "kink" a wire, you have taken it to it's plastic point... right? So if a "kink" type load can take the string beyond it's elastic point without breaking, why not "stretching" type load? Isn't there a big difference between "elastic limit" and ultimate limit? Kurt </div>