Klarinet Archive - Posting 000212.txt from 1997/04

From: Jerry Korten <Jrykorten@-----.COM>
Subj: Re: Reed Care Mystery
Date: Mon, 7 Apr 1997 18:57:31 -0400

Actually, one can (I did) learn a bit from cabinet makers and how they finish
wood. My personal "technical opinion" (not presented as fact, but presented
with more weight than hearsay - intended to convince by an appeal to
technical matters) is that the dimensions of wood need to be stabilized
before use. Cabinet makers realize that newly finished wood requires many
sandings and wettings before the fibres stop swelling up, or changing after
each sanding. And that after treating wood like this a few times, they can
get a mirror smooth varnished finish (or oiled).

Similarly, the fibres of the reed are not stable when we pull a new reed out
of the box. By wetting and rubbing and then drying a few times prior to
putting the reed into service, we get the wood to swell and move all that it
is going to move before we start to make adjustments.

Once the reed is "seasoned" by this repetitive wetting and drying (I
personally can't tell the difference between saliva and water), if we adjust
the reed it will likely be an adjustment that is valid the next time we use
the reed. If the fibres are still changing and we make an adjustment, then
the next time we use the reed everything has changed again and the adjustment
made yesterday may not have been a good idea. Since reed making and adjusting
are a subtractive process, one really does not want to remove material that
shouldn't have been removed. Once it's gone there's no going back.

Some change in dimensions of the reed cane (wood) are inevitable and in fact
when a reed becomes sluggish or flat sounding (played out) you can always see
the reed fibres swelling into the mouthpiece windway. When this happens - As
that famous Texas Governer said "You can stick a fork in it - it's done!"

Jerry Korten
NYC

>Gary VanCott = NHIN
>04/06/97 05:20 PM
>The thing that bothers me about all these reed handling discussions, is
>that there doesn't seem to be any science behind it. It is hard for me to
>believe that many of the treatments people talk about have any effect once
>the reed has been wet for 5 minutes.

>Comments?

>Gary
>Las Vegas, NV