Anyone know what "music wire" is?

[Chiro75]

I began working on my MadPoet custom kits yesterday and didn't have the right size of stainless steel rod for the pins. I went to the hardware store and they had something called "music wire" in a bunch of sizes. It looked like stainless and was oxidation free, so I thought I'd try it. Now I'm concerned I made a boo-boo. It sparks like crazy and is difficult to cut and grind with the regular Dremel accessories. It will be a real pain in the butt to get level with the handle slabs, but my primary concern is oxidation. if this is just some sort of low-quality carbon steel will it discolor quickly and taint the G-10 (forest green) I am using for handle scales? I've already glued everything together, like an idiot. Also, can I try and blue them to reduce oxidation without affecting the scales? Any tips would be appreciated!
Steve

 

[Kit Carson]

It's also called piano wire. High carbon spring wire, and yes it will rust. Shouldn't be any problem blueing it in the G-10 handles. Keep small samples of materials around and use them for testing purposes. Beats screwing up the real thing.

 

[Alan Folts]

Steve, as long as you didnt peen the pins I have a tip that can take them out for ya, if you are careful enough so that you can replace them with stainless or whatever you desire...

Get a peice of wire the same size as the pinstock you used...

Taper it down with a grinder,ect. so its slightly smaller in diameter...

All you have to do is figure a way to heat up the peice of tapered pin and press it to the pin that you already have there...

The heat will make the epoxy soft and you should be able, with some carefull heating of the press pin and a little patience, to remove the pins from your handles to be replaced...

A couple tips, dont get the press pin too hot, the last thing you need to do is burn up your handle materials in the process. Also, I found it handy to put the press pin in the drill press, that way I could get good even pressure and kepp myslef from burning the handle materials..

Alan...

 

[Chiro75]

Good idea, Alan. Unfortunately, using a hand drill did not result in the most precisely lined-up holes, so I literally had to pound everything together with brutal force. I will say that G-10 is tough stuff! On the downside, those pins are never coming out unless I remove scales and everything. I guess the logical next question is will bluing the pins prevent rust?