Jean in Poole wrote: <<I have a wooden handled pin vice in the same style as this one. I bought bent needles for a lazy susan to clamp them in from Tim Parker. Every time I tried to bend my own they broke.>>
You need to heat the needle in a flame to soften it and bend it, but that heat discolours the needle because you have to get the steel of the needle very hot.
The reason your needles break when you try to bend them is because they are made of Stainless Steel, if they were not tempered steel or some other metal plated with steel they would bend more easily.
This is one way to tell if your lace pins are in reality Stainless Steel or not. Try bending one of them, if you can bend it a little way before it snaps in two it is stainless, if it will bend right round then it is not stainless and you shouldn't use it for lace making as it will rust and mark your lace.
I have found here at lace days that some suppliers are confused about the pins they sell, they sell them as stainless steel but they are in fact tempered steel as they can be bent completely in half.
Regards Jenny DeAngelis Spain. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
