Chas- I had a Var brass cotter pin hammer long ago. The plastic red handle broke and I never made a replacement. The coolest tool I saw for cotter pins was a hand held air hammer.
My take on loose pins is that it is like taper fit arms. If you don't keep it tight you have a problem.
> The problem with most cotters from the bike boom era was that they were
> soft and came loose from normal peddling. WE had several VAR # 07 cotter
> presses at out shop but sometimes a week later a customer would come back
> with loose cranks!
>
> Add to that, French, British and Italian sizes plus oddballs in between.
> We had a VAR # 371 "cotter vise" to hold the cotter while re-filing the
> taper.
>
> >http://www.sheldonbrown.com/var/pages/var0012.html<
>
> Zeus made some hardened steel cotters which fit most French cranks. They
> were expensive and in short supply but they never came loose.
>
> Chas. Colerich
> Oakland, CA USA
> _______________________________________________
Andrew R Stewart
Rochester, NY