On Mon, 14 Jan 2019 13:53:35 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

But then it occurred to me, I really would like some brass ones. The
steel ones rust after a while. So I mentioned those.

I didn't get any. :-(

I bought the brass pins that I secure my ankles with at Walmart; I
think it was in the crafty-wafty department.

They are rather coarse, but I use them only with cheap sweat pants.

I like them mainly for the looks; under conditions that make steel
pins rust, brass would turn green, stain your clothes, and be hard to
pull out.

Count me in for the carbon-fiber safety pins -- if they come in
International Orange, they would be much easier to find when I drop
one.

Another wish list: safety pins of *any* material that say on the
package how thick they are. I'd love to have silk pins with a safety
catch on them.

("silk pins" are a thin variety of dressmaking pins. They used to be
nickel-plated brass, but are now stainless.)

As long as I can remember, "brass plated" pins have been available,
usually in the very smallest size, presumably to make them easier to
find in a box of mixed pins. When I grew up, I began to wonder how
one plates with an alloy -- brass melts too high to "hot dip" as one
does with zinc -- and it just now occurs to me to wonder how one goes
about brass plating something as cheap as a safety pin.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/