The ideal tuning tip is the invisible link between your hand and the strings. The Reyburn ProTip is the product of several years of rethinking what a tuning tip should be, designing, prototyping, and testing.
To our knowledge, the ProTip is the first tuning tip made from a proper tool steel, rather than a standard high carbon or chrome moly steel. We start with the legendary D2 tool steel, a high carbon/high chromium steel used for dies and cutting tools before WWII and up to this day. It’s one of the toughest, most wear resistant steels available. In the knifemaking world, it’s the steel of choice if you want a knife that’s tough to sharpen but even tougher to dull.
The ProTip is vacuum hardened to above 60HRC. That’s hard enough that many files won’t scratch it, but D2 still isn’t brittle at this range. With the high hardness, the bore is highly resistant to wear from deformation or corroded tuning pins.
Tuning tip bores are traditionally cut on a broaching machine before hardening at high temperature, introducing variation from dulling tooling and then warping during hardening.
Our design uses EDM cutting after hardening with a submicron surface finish to achieve a silky bore surface that slides on and off the pin. The optimal angle and size we've derived from years of measuring, fit tests, and prototypes is maintained perfectly, as this is the final process.
Of course that outside surface needs mention! It’s not just for looks. The curve matches the tapered bore, and the flute cuts are aligned with the star points to ensure there’s never a thin weak point. The mass of the tip is reduced by about 16%. It adds up to better control when you’re working with a lever at the ball end and lifting the tool from pin to pin all day.
