Klarinet Archive - Posting 000875.txt from 1997/07

From: "Charles W. West" <cwest@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: old news
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 03:57:56 -0400

Just a couple of ideas about reed warpage and curing as I clean out my
inbox:
The combination of dense epidermis and more mealy inner wood (a term I use
loosely, since arundo donax is actually a grass) forms a laminate similar
to the metal laminate used in a household thermostat. Only instead of
temperature affecting the movement of the two materials, humidity affects
them. For that reason, one cannot ever assume that "all of the warpage is
out of the reed" as a result of curing or whatever--it just isn't so. A
perfectly stable reed (remains flat on the back from playing to playing)
here in Richmond VA would immediately become very convex in a dry
climate--like Flagstaff AZ. The forces of epidermis and inner material
working against each other will be different in dry air than in more
humid.
So curing a reed blank (the major advantage of making one's own reeds)
needs to be done in the climate where it is to be played. Some people
recommend soaking in saliva--fine--the stuff in the saliva clogs up the
reed and contributes to stabilizing it. Further, the enzymes which change
starches into sugars also work on the vegetable matter from which we will
make a reed.
Another comment about putting reeds down on glass (or another nonporous
surface) to keep them flat: all wood warps toward water. So you stick a
wet reed down on glass, trapping the water between the reed and the
glass--where does the reed dry first? The thinnest parts--edges and tip.
So there's the remaining water trapped between the glass and reed in the
center and what do you get? A convex reed! Try curing them with the
backside (where "Vandoren" is printed) up, so air can circulate and
measure the warpage.
It seems to me that all reed problems boil down to two
categories--mechanical and organic. Organic problems cannot be solved
mechanically, no matter how good one is at making reeds--bad cane makes
bad reeds. Given good cane then, mechanical issues include absolute
flatness--does a sheet of paper bend well laterally when it's cuved
longitudinally? Nope--it has to be flat.
Just one other little idea. When one splits a tube to make blanks, the
tube closes right back up tight. If you leave it for a while, the crack
opens--and if you soak it and dry it, it opens hugely. That's the same
force at work that causes a reed which is not adapted to the climate
before it is cut to warp. If you put the split tube back in humidity,
rather than letting it dry so fast, the split becomes smaller. In the
same way, warpage can be controlled by controlling the humidity in which
the reed is kept. One of Phil Rehfeldt's students published a really good
article in The Clarinet about 20 years ago--has Burnett Tuthill's picture
on the cover--around 1976--entitled "Some Climate Experiments." It'd be
worth reading.
Good luck
Chuck West

On Sat, 26 Jul 1997, Edwin V. Lacy wrote:

> On Sat, 26 Jul 1997, T.R. Baun wrote:
>
> > I have been told that in the reed-making process, most manufacturers do
> > not cure their cane. Therefore, if this is true, it is necessary to cure
> > one's purchased reeds. If this is so, why did my entire box of reeds
> > warp so badly that had I sanded them in order to level them out, they
> > would have had a thickness of "0?"
>
> In my opinion, it is not necessary to "cure" reeds, although there is a
> process I go through to prepare them for playing. This consists of
> soaking them for a minimum period of about 20 minutes and then placing
> them on a flat surface (an "easel") and sanding them smooth with #600
> wet-or-dry sandpaper or silicon carbide paper. Then, test each reed, be
> prepared to scrape the rails and tip of the harder one, and clip the
> softer ones.
>
> If you are talking about a reed being warped while it is dry, I think that
> should be of no concern whatsoever to you. After you wet it thoroughly,
> perhaps pressing the tip on a flat surface with your thumb for a few
> seconds, it should flatten out again. Warping is a problem only when a
> reed warps while you are playing on it due to uneven moisture content in
> the pores of the cane.
>
> Ed Lacy
> el2@-----.edu
>
>