Klarinet Archive - Posting 000588.txt from 2003/03

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] oiling
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2003 17:51:41 -0500

<<<If you're serious about bringing a clarinet back to life that has sat
in an attic for 50 or so years, an oil bath is essential. You would be
amazed at the difference in the wood. It takes a nice long soak though.
I do a minimum of two weeks.>>>

Certainly I don't want to be in the position of disagreeing too
vociferously with many of the experts on the list, but I have heard a
contrasting viewpoint on this. One of the instrument manufacturers (it
might have been Buffet, or perhaps the oboe manufacturer Loree) did an
experiment. They soaked a piece of granadilla in oil for a VERY long
time - as I recall, over a year. Then, they sliced the wood so that
they could view a cross section. The conclusion was that the oil had
hardly penetrated the wood at all. African blackwood is so dense, and
its pores so small, that something with a molecular size as large as the
oils that are often used for trying to treat the wood won't soak into it
at all. However, such oils will often clean the surface, and some oily
residue remaining can make the wood look newer.

<<<I have a 40 year old Buffet bass clarinet here that I bought on eBay.
The wood is so dry that it is a orange color. No, it's NOT antique
ROSEWOOD, as the ads on eBay scream. It's regular old grenadilla totally
dried out.>>>

I would speculate that what is missing may not be oil from the heart of
the wood, but rather stain from its surface. As probably many of us
have observed, some clarinets and oboes have a brownish cast to them. I
have seen some where the inside of the bell or other joints has not been
stained, and the interior and exterior are different colors. In other
words, in its natural state, granadilla is usually not jet black, but
some shade of brown.

<<<After I totally disassemble it, I'm going to soak it for at least two
to three weeks.>>>

If the above reported experiment has any validity, perhaps an oil soak
of two to three centuries might be called for. ;-)

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville

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