Klarinet Archive - Posting 000599.txt from 1996/03

From: CLARK FOBES <reedman@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Crooked wood grain
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 1996 20:56:58 -0500

You wrote:
>
>I just bought a year-old clarinet from Tom Martin, and I love the way
it
>sounds and everything, except I've noticed that some of the grains on
the
>wood aren't exactly parallel with the others. Has anyone else seen
anything
>like this on their horns or is something wrong with mine?
>
>--Nate
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>nathan@-----.com/~nathan
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>
Crooked grain is not uncommon in clarinets. As a matter of fact, most
ropical woods exhibit this type of "spiral grain". I will make a quote
from "Wood Technology" by H.D. Tiemann.

"When the fibers run spirally around the axis, as in twisted
trunks, the grain in a plank sawn from such a log may appear to be
perfectly straight and parallel, yet if split lengthwise in a radial
plane the split will twist...Close inspection with a hand lens or other
careful test is often require to determine spiral grain.
A very common type is where the slope of the spirals alternate from
left to right or vice versa in successive zones over many periods of
years. Such grain makes a very tough wood, hard to split. It is some
times called "interlocking grain" and is extremely common in dense
tropical woods."

I have seen both so called straight grain and twisted grain
instruments crack. My Prestige Bb has a big knot in the upper joint and
it has never cracked. I believe that if billets survive the slow drying
out process without checking they probably will not crack unles
subjected to radical temperature or humidity changes.

I buy "seasoned" blackwood for my barrels from the best importer in
Europe (Nagel). Still, when I receive the billets I try to let them air
dry at least a year before machining. After that time I have enough
wood machined and bored to produce 100 blanks (about 30 billets) We let
the blanks sit another 3-6 months before final finishing. I am
attempting to get ahead on my wood so that eventually I will be making
barrels out of wood that has sat in my garage about 5 years. So far I
have only had 2 barrels crack out of approximately 200.

One of the indications to me that Buffet wood is still "active"
after the instruments arrive from France is the change in pitch that
occurs from new to about 6 months of playing. Generally the pitch of
the instrument is slighlty lower brand new than at 6 months. I have not
determined if they are designed low in anticipation of this change or
if they change and become lower in the several weeks that it takes
from making the instrument to receiving shipment.

Clark W Fobes