Stainless steel pins rust, brass ones tarnish. Not quite the same.
Not the same at all. But, *good* stainless steel pins don't rust and they don't tarnish either.
I brought a big bunch of East-German sewing pins (lovely glasss heads, in many colours) with me when I came here 30 yrs ago. They were 10 yrs old *then* and still none shows any signs of rust, for all they sit in a box with a magnetic opening on top, open to all elements (and Virginia can get very humid in the summer). Some loose their heads every once in a while and have to be thrown away, but that's the extent of the damage. OTOH, I bought a box of sewing pins (plastic heads, in many colours <g>) the first year I started making lace ('89) and those made my pincushion look like a crowd of flies with diarrhea had a party on it -- all of them "melded" into the fabric with rust.
I've been using IBC silk pins (get them from Clotilde here, but I know some lace suppliers carry them too) ever since then, and have had no trouble with rust. I do get a new box of them every now and then, but that's because I throw the bent ones away, and some laces are more "pin-intensive" than others as well. I like those pins, because they're fairly long (1.25") and fine (.5mm), yet stronger (less bendable) than brass ones of the same dimensions (if one can find such <g>).
Also, I'm not so sure about Jacquie's original statement that stainless steel ones rust, the brass ones only tarnish, and that the first damage is permanent, while the second can be corrected (ie washed out of the affected fabric/lace). I have some brass-on-leather ornaments (buckles, studs) which I brought from Poland. After 3-4 years, they all develop not just a green patina, but *bunches* of coarse green crud. And, some years ago, and ex-Arachnean (Penny Boston), who studied microbe life in deep caves for NASA, took some pins with her and left them in one of the caves, to see what effect constantly damp and chilly environment would have on them. As I remember it, the brass pins, for all they were thicker, were "eaten through" within 3 months; it took 6 for the stainless steel ones to give up the ghost :)
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Tamara P Duvall
Lexington, Virginia, USA
Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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