Klarinet Archive - Posting 000662.txt from 1998/09

From: "Arnold Teres" <johnathant@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] real subject: breaking in my R-13
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 20:19:29 -0400

Graeme Cox wrote:
<take some bore oil and apply a little to the outside of your (wooden)
clarinet. Leave it for a few hours and then inspect. You will find that much
of the oil has soaked into the surface, leaving only small residues visible.
If the wood was saturated, this would not happen.>

Well maybe - but there are a group of oils such as linseed and almond oil
that are called "drying oils" because they dry out on exposure to air. These
oils are used in paints and inks because they will dry without soaking into
porus surfaces. I don't know what your bore oil is but the commercial
LeBlanc bore oil contains petrolium distillates (read light kerosene) to
give a "drying oil" effect. Your test is inconclusive as stated - try it on
a piece of glass. If you are left with little to no residue then you are
using a drying oil and it's not "soaking in". if you are left with a puddle
then you are correct - the wood is adsorbing the oil. In either case I'm not
sure if oiling is a good thing unless you have a really "dried out" piece of
wood. Perhaps Mr. Kloc or some other expert could give us some idea of how
you tell that a clarinet needs oil since I seem to remember that he did not
say to never oil but only if it is really needed.

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