Personally I prefer phosphor bronze over yellow brass although the latter is preferred by die-hard purists. The reasons I like bronze are 1) is is somewhat easier to find and 2) not quite as brittle ( it may be necessary to anneal the two ends of yellow brass if the string is near it’s breaking point). Sometimes however red brass may be preferable in the lower octaves. A string band designer such as Robinson’s will know if that is needed/desirable.

There are probably tutorials about using ball ends for steel guitar strings, so you might try searching on that. A problem with those for harp strings is that some wires for harps are thicker which makes winding them on a royal pain. When I have done so, however, I used two needle nosed pliers and placed a nylon bushing followed by a leather washer between the ball end and sound board.

There are ball end winding machines out there but they are expensive and some are too small for the larger strings. All told I find Z-toggles much easier and less prone to kinking the string. Here is guidance from David Kortier: http://www.kortier.com/subpages/toggles.htm

Biagio

That Z-toggle idea is great! I never knew how the wire strings were anchored on a wire-strung harp. I have dealt with putting many such strings on harpsichords and clavichords, but never a wire-strung harp. Thanks, Biagio!

Cheers,
Balfour