| Brought to you this hour by |  | Advertising and Web Hosting on Woodwind.Org! |
Doublereed Archive - Posting 000093.txt from 2006/08
From: philfrei@-----.com
Subj: [DR-L] "Ironing" oboe reeds
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:09:39 -0400
Hi -
I recently came across the concept of "ironing" reeds in a bassoon reed
making manual. The writer attributed the original idea to an oboist,
but I've never come across the concept in any of the oboe literature.
I'm curious, are other oboists using this method?
Basically, one uses a contoured placque as backing support, and "irons"
the reed with a smooth, round metal surface. It's almost like the
action of scraping over the entire surface of the reed, but one is only
pressing it, not doing anything abrasive. I've been using the shiny
shaft of the miniature screwdriver that came with my oboe.
I think what happens is that this action squeezes water out of the
surface layer of wood. This seems to be a reasonable thing to do when a
reed gets kind of stodgy or stiff from overuse and overwetness. I'm a
little less worried about days with multiple rehearsals and
performances when I have a limited number of reeds, as this technique
seems to make it possible to reuse a reed without requiring the usual
resting/drying period.
I've had no problems as of yet with accidentally taking a corner off or
anything like that. I did get a bit of openness on the sides after one
ironing, and now I'm a little more careful about ironing the edges of
the blades.
I'm curious about other people's experiences.
- Phil Freihofner
P.S. RE: earlier post on attempting a wider reed for baroque playing:
I've only made time for making two wide (RDG 2 shape) reeds so far.
They didn't work so well. Hard to keep the crow up to C, I'm finding.
Am going to try again with some wider diameter cane. (This time 11mm!)
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email
and IM. All on demand. Always Free.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
For personal help: email doublereed-owner@-----.org
Doublereed is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org
