Klarinet Archive - Posting 000177.txt from 1998/01

From: "Baldy" <comic@-----.com>
Subj: Re: too long, maybe, but not mindless (I hope)
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 08:17:42 -0500

Bill,

I am a woodworker and wood carver (among many other interests). A leather
strop is loaded with jewlers rouge - a very fine abrasive before being
used. The strop is not for real sharpening, rather it is the final
polishing step in the sharpening process.

>
> Sorry, but a leather strop is not impregnated with abrasives (as you
> wrote privately) and is not meant to be abrasive - the whet stone (hard
> Arkansas) does that job - and it is nothing like sandpaper. The effect
> would be about the same on a steel razor as cotton cloth on a rubber
> mouthpiece (even if it IS "steel ebonite" : )). Silk - now there's a a
> good idea - see below under "lens cleaning."
>
> "My optometrist told me NEVER to use tissues or paper towels on my
> glasses as these items are actually made of wood fibers and despite
> their apparent softness (in the case of tissues) are more abrasive than
> cloth."
>
> As a microscopist of sorts, I can tell you that glass is a lot harder
> than wood fibers.
>

Itcertainly is - however this person obviously got plastic lenses - as I
have - I have received the caution for years.

It sounds to me as if a major factor has been ignored - wind blown
particles. You are continually blowing air through the mouthpiece - the air
contains particulates with could gradually erode the surfaces that have
been discussed.

Who knows, maybe we have found someones PhD disertation topic.

Bob