Do Quilting Pins Go Bad?
 

I've been playing with quilting for 13 years and over the years have discarded pins for feeling dull. I run them through the little strawberry emery pin cushion to "sharpen" them, but that doesn't seem to help. I'm getting frustrated by the amount of pins that suddenly seem dull. I primarily have the yellow-top pins. Should I invest more in pins? Is there a preferred brand that stays sharp?

Any suggestions?

we spend so much money on other quilting supplies. In my estimation, replacing pins is not very expensive. :)

Sometimes a few pins are dull right out of the box, too.

My favorite thin long pins bend pretty easy. I use them to match up intersections.

I personally like the white and red glass head pins because they seem to be a good quality and I can iron right over them if need be, but there are one or two that are dull right out of the box, even with these ones.

i finally broke down and bought a big box of the multi colored daisy heads. half of them were dull right out of the box. frustrating. i could have spent that money on fabric! What is the best pins around? I like long ones the best.

I think the yellow headed ones I have aren't that very sharp from the get-go. My sharpest (and what I'm turning to more and more) are some glass headed, shorter, Fons & Porter pins I got at Tuesday Morning.

I have all kinds of pins, each in their own pincushion or taking up half of a pincushion. My super thin pins have all been really sharp and have stayed sharp through heavy use. If you want thin pins, do not just believe the printing on the package where it says "very fine", instead look at the fine print where it tells you the thickness of the pin. Many times it will be 0.5, which is not a super fine pin, but the package will say "very fine" or something similar. If you want super fine pins you want it a bit thinner than that. Look for the yellow and blue glass head Clover pins that say 0.4 thickness on the package. These pins look exactly like the ones they sell which are 0.5 thick, and I've never seen them at JoAnn's, only at some quilt shops and bigger quilt shows. Those are the bomb for piecing! They don't distort the fabric when you pin and are so thin you can sew right over them. Most of the time if the machine needle hits one of the pins (sew a bit slower over the pins) it will just nudge that super thin pin over. Once in a while I hit one dead on and the pin just gets bent at a ninety degree angle by the machine needle, and I throw it away. But your sewing machine will be undamaged. For a longer really thin pin, you can buy all blue flower head pins at some JoAnn's, which are 0.45 thick. The flower heads are dark blue on one side and light blue on the other side.

I bought some long, glass headed pins at WalMart. They are sharp and very satisfactory. I also have a bunch of the flower-headed pins, but they seem to be getting dull. Time for more from WalMart!