[Bell Historians] Tucking up vs hanging out 'old style'

[David Bryant]

> Referring back to an earlier posting, the use of coins of the realm for
> the purpose (couldn't that be considered to be defacing a Coin of the
> Realm and therefore illegal?) works quite well for a time, but the
> coins have a habit of falling out, just as the asbestos paper (or
> whatever it was) that Taylors used to supply for the job did!

Doesn't usually damage them (although there is the possibility that they
could get a bit squashed). We've not had problems with them falling out,
provided the staple bolt is kept tight. On the 11th staple we had three of
them lined up at one time because it's such a large staple, but we've now
had a twiddle pin fitted to the headstock.

Incidentally, when did each of the foundries start supplying headstocks with
twiddle pins? I thing Taylor's was round about the early 1980s and
Whitechapel somewhat earlier, although I could be wrong.

David