I can make or supply tuning pins for traditional wire-strung Irish harps.
19th century style iron or steel pins
With the standardisation of the design of traditional wire-strung Irish harps in the 1820s, iron or steel tuning pins replaced the older style brass ones. These pins are used in sets of different sizes, with thinner shafts in the treble and thicker shafts in the bass; the bass pins are also longer and project more on the string side. All the drive heads in a set are the same size,so one tuning key fits all the heads in one set. The drive heads are large and tapered in the same way as the older type, to allow for a tight fit with the tuning key and fine control of the tuning.
Set of 37 steel pins for a John Egan design traditional wire-strung Irish harp made according to my free construction drawings. You can download a a PDF data sheet and technical drawings of these pins. These pins are machined from 303 stainless steel, in four different sizes, and a set of 37 costs £370.
These pins are best used with a 5.75mm or 6mm tuning key. The four sizes of pins require the four sizes of taper reamer (see below). The pins are intended to have their drive heads aligned, so that the tail ends project more in the bass, to match the increased projection of the bridge pins in the bass. This is described in the plans commentary booklet. The lowest two also project more on the drive side as indicated in my photo above.
18th century and earlier style brass pins
Tuning pins for 18th century and older traditional wire-strung Irish harps are usually made from brass, and the large square drive heads have incised decoration which gives a very distinctive and special look to these harps.
I have been making this style of brass pins for many years, at first by fabricating (soldering a square head to a tapered shaft), and more recently by getting blanks made in bulk by a local engineering company.
My standard handmade brass tuning pins have decorated heads with incised lines, copying the historic originals. They have #4 Imperial 1:48 taper shafts, the same as standard modern harp tuning pins. This means they can be fitted using a standard ¼″ reamer, or can be swapped out to replace modern steel pins.
I have about 20 remaining of my first batch of blanks. These blanks cost £5.50 each. You can download a PDF Data sheet.
I am going to get a fresh batch of brass pins or blanks manufactured. This second batch will have the same #4 Imperial 1:48 taper shafts but will have the tapered head already machined to size, requiring only minimal hand finishing (cut to length, file decorative grooves, and drill string hole). Please enquire for availability, pricing, and specs.
Fitting the pins into the harp
Taper harp tuning pins are fitted into the neck of the harp using a tapered reamer that matches the tapered shaft of the tuning pins. I can supply reamers suitable for fitting different sizes of tuning pins. I have four sizes of Imperial 1:48 taper reamer here in stock:
| size | Standard pin number | dia of large end (mm) | length of cutting edges (mm) | dia of small end (mm) | price |
| ¼″ | #4 | 6.3 | 80 | 4.7 | £25 |
| ⁹⁄₃₂″ | #5 | 7.1 | 105 | 5.3 | £50 |
| ⁵⁄₁₆″ | 7.9 | 105 | 5.8 | £25 | |
| ¹¹⁄₃₂″ | #6 | 8.7 | 114 | 6.5 | £50 |
If you don’t want to buy one, you can borrow one from me, for £5 plus a returnable deposit.
Examples of my previous work
I have made sets of pins for amateur harpmakers as well as for professional instrument-makers, to be fitted to new harps. I have also made replacement sets of pins for retro-fitting older harps that were originally fitted with modern steel pins. Some of my sets of pins are generic old Irish harp pins; others are carefully sized and modelled after individual historic pins. I enjoy making replica pins specifically to go in a replica harp. (in the photographs below, I did not make the harps! I only made the pins for these harps)
Taper harp tuning pins on classical pedal and lever harps have a parallel-sided small square drive machined down into the shaft. These small parallel drives are fine for gut strings or nylon strings which are pretty stretchy and take a lot of winding for fine tuning. But monofilament wire strings used on traditional wire-strung Irish harps are much more sensitive and require very fine control of the tuning pin and key. The traditional Irish harp tuning pins for wire-strung harps have much wider square drives which taper slightly. This wider, tapered drive head allows a much more precise fit of the tuning key or tuning hammer onto the pin, and makes fine tuning of the sensitive wire strings much easier.
I became frustrated by how even good harpmakers, producing good traditional Irish wire-strung harps copied from the historical originals, were fitting standard classical pedal harp / lever harp pins to them. So I started making the traditional style pins, at first to fit or retro-fit to my own harps, and subsequently to supply them to makers and other players.
How to order:
Send an email to shop@simonchadwick.net, or phone or text me, telling me what you would like.
Please note: postage is charged extra. Click here for payment information.
If you are not sure what you need, still get in touch and ask me. There is no commitment to place an order; just call or email and see if the price and description is really what you are after. I am happy to recommend other sellers who might have what you need.