I have a beautiful harp style soap cutter that dh made a couple years ago (pics below). It's been great, but by this point I have broken many of the strings and I am wondering what to replace them with. The original strings were labeled as 0.30 mm diameter plain steel for acoustic and electric guitar, brand D'Addario type PL012. They apparently aren't strong enough to handle the full variety of soaps I make as several have broke on harder soaps.
We recently went to a music shop to get new, stronger strings. The shop owner graciously (free of charge) let us take used strings she had amassed. However, she was teaching music lessons so was not able to tell us what type of strings we selected. Most of the used strings were too short to fit my cutter, and the few strings that were long enough were too thick to cut soap. They did not cleanly cut day-old soap, and are not an option for future use. I do not have a way to accurately measure the diameter of these strings but can say they are bronze colored and have ridges, unlike the guitar strings which were silver and smooth.
I would have gladly purchased brand new strings, but as I mentioned, the owner was preoccupied and we did not want to bother her. I have no clue what they were (to avoid), or what I should try next. I will go back to her, as I want to give her soap for the favor she paid us strangers. But I'd like to be more prepared.
What advice do you have for me? What thickness, material, intended instrument, etc. do you recommend? They need to be at least 26 inches long, preferably longer. As I said the originals were 0.30mm which work on most but not all soaps.
Thanks in advance for keeping a good thing going
We recently went to a music shop to get new, stronger strings. The shop owner graciously (free of charge) let us take used strings she had amassed. However, she was teaching music lessons so was not able to tell us what type of strings we selected. Most of the used strings were too short to fit my cutter, and the few strings that were long enough were too thick to cut soap. They did not cleanly cut day-old soap, and are not an option for future use. I do not have a way to accurately measure the diameter of these strings but can say they are bronze colored and have ridges, unlike the guitar strings which were silver and smooth.
I would have gladly purchased brand new strings, but as I mentioned, the owner was preoccupied and we did not want to bother her. I have no clue what they were (to avoid), or what I should try next. I will go back to her, as I want to give her soap for the favor she paid us strangers. But I'd like to be more prepared.
What advice do you have for me? What thickness, material, intended instrument, etc. do you recommend? They need to be at least 26 inches long, preferably longer. As I said the originals were 0.30mm which work on most but not all soaps.
Thanks in advance for keeping a good thing going