Klarinet Archive - Posting 000196.txt from 2001/11

From: DGross1226@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Re: Sulphur in mouthpieces
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2001 11:33:28 -0500

In a message dated 01-11-05 04:13:27 EST, you write:

<< My understanding (and I make no claims to being a chemist!) is that Sulphur
is used as a hardening agent and a "binder". I am not certain what causes the
sulphur to migrate out, but it clearly does - probably superficially only. >>

Clark,

I AM (was at one time?) a chemist. For more information than you could
possibly want on the vulcanization proccess -- adding sulfur to natural
rubber (about 5% for automobile tires, or from 30-50% for "Vulcanite" used in
clarinet mouthpieces) -- and have some time to kill, do a google.com search
on "hard rubber sulfur" and stand back. One of the more interesting articles
I found was on using hard rubber for pipe (the smoking kind) mouthpieces
(www.pipeguy.com/pipebits.html).

Happy researching!

Don Gross
La Canada, California

---------------------------------------------------------------------