BRIDGE PINS FOR BOB

BOB HAS DECIDED he wants South Coast Linear strings on his new tenor that is almost ready to ship.  But he wants the flat wound strings that come with a metal knob on the end .  The manufacturer says the knobs cannot be cut off and the strings  tied in knots as the round wounds can .  Those metal knobs must remain on the strings. 
The solution is to use Bridge Pins, or String Pins as is common on guitars.  I was able to find some slightly smaller pins and am now waiting for a 3 degree reamer to arrive so that I can fit the pins perfectly to the hole that I will be drilling through the bridge, the sound board and the thin hardwood brace under it.   I love the feel of those flat wound strings and I might try bridge pins on the "blonde" tenor that I am planning on keeping for myself.  Who knows,  Bob might have nudged me into a new building practice.  I have lots of buffalo bone I could turn on my lathe and make pins with. Even a little walrus ivory come to think about it.

I am doing a little experimenting with a scrap of wood to see how these pins will secure the string.   When I get the reamer in the next couple of days I will mockup an ebony bridge and do a thorough test to be sure the string will hold and the pin will stay in place.  The next pictures illustrate the principle.  

On the upper side the string runs along a groove cut in the pin and emerges to go over the saddle to the tuner.  The pin not only holds the string securely but becomes a decorative item with its mother of pearl dot

Looking at it from the underside you see the knot, or in the case of the South Coast Strings, the metal ball, jammed against the pin preventing the string from pulling free.