Klarinet Archive - Posting 000283.txt from 1999/09

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] B&H Edgware
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 18:24:44 -0400

Wendy Kirkland wrote,
>i have been offered a pair of B&H Edgware wood clarinets, not in very good
condition. The A clarinet needs rebores on the tenons, new tenon rings and
corks. The Bb needs new corks and rings. Both need new springs and pads etc.>

I've seen Edgewares at flea markets. The thought of getting a matched pair
of anything is attractive, and would attract me, but those are intermediate
student quality. The part I really don't like about Edgewares is that they
have cast pot-metal keys. That would worry me on clarinets in the condition
you describe, because given everything else that's wrong, it's very likely
that some of the keys are slightly out of alignment, maybe not enough to be
obvious on a clarinet that can't really be test-played and leaks because it
needs repadding.

Those cast pot-metal keys can't be bent much (if at all) without breaking.
If a key has already been bent while cold once, in the direction to throw it
out of alignment, odds are pretty good the metal is thoroughly de-tempered
now. (Even good quality, ductile forged brass or silver that's been properly
annealed will de-temper and snap if cold-bent back and forth too many times,
but tempering on pot metal is minimal at best. It's brittle rather than
ductile.) That means the key is very likely to break if bent again, back in
the other direction, to put it back into alignment. (Think of the way you
break an old credit card up to discard it, by bending it back and forth until
it cracks.)

As a high school student, in about 1963, I broke a similar cast pot metal key
while playing my 1958 Conn Director. I wasn't exactly Gertie the Gorilla --
I was literally a 90-lb. weakling at the time -- but when nervous, which was
most of the time, I tended to get a death-grip on the clarinet and bash the
keys hard, especially when I had some leaky pads to seal, which was usually.
The key that broke was a RH pinkie key, on top space Eb. In a rapid passage
(black note panic!), I think I nailed the key sloppily, high up where the
finger touch narrows into the rod, instead of square on the finger- touch.
Anyway, the finger-touch just snapped right off, boingo! That's a corked
key, where the cork not only silences the click but absorbs a lot of the
shock, so that tells you something about the fragility of that type of metal.
The repair guy couldn't find a matching key, just a few years after that
clarinet was made. He hand-cast a new key for me while I played a
much-abused school-owned plastic Bundy that leaked like a colander, for my
sins.

I've also had quite a lot of experience with various pot metals in old lamps,
in my stained glass repair business. I guess I'd take a chance on a matched
pair of old clarinets made with that stuff if the set showed up at a flea
market extra-cheap, just because it's so hard to find a used matched pair of
anything, but I'd be buying a repair project, not anything I'd expect to end
up as my main instruments. Hope you can find something better for the money.

Best--
Lelia

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