The basic material from which steel or brass pinions are made for small clocks, brass pinions sometimes being used in clock motion work. The pinion wire is produced by drawing wire through drawplates. When making a pinion, a length of pinion wire of the desired diameter, having the required number of leaves, is mounted in a lathe or turns and cut to form the pinion and arbour in one piece. To do this a cut is first made at each end of the pinion and the surplus leaves broken off before the final turning. Pinions made from wire require to have their leaves finished to shape by filing along the flutes, and steel pinions are finally finished by hardening and polishing.