Klarinet Archive - Posting 000276.txt from 2006/01

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] cork grease (was: [kl] Partitta for Mozart's B-day!)
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 21:33:52 -0500


Tom Wood wrote,
>I was having 2 mouthpiece tenon corks replaced,
>(both had become unglued). The repairman asked
>me how often I used cork grease on the MP corks......
>I said almost every time I used the MP. He said to
>stop doing that! Cork grease will destroy the glue
>that holds the tenon cork on the tenon...........
>
>Anyone else believe that? Any comments?

Well, failing to use cork grease will definitely destroy the cork. I use
grease whenever the cork dries out and needs it. That's not every day, but
it's pretty often.

I'm an amateur, but I re-pad and re-cork my own equipment. Most of my
clarinets and saxophones are old (early to mid 20th century). I've had to
replace corks with dried out old glue that became brittle and started
flaking apart. The cork needed replacing by then, anyway. Most of the
cork damage I've seen looked as if it came from deterioration of the cork
itself. I've never thought the cork grease had anything to do with the
deterioration. I've never seen an intact cork simply come unglued.

Maybe it depends on the grease, too--some of those "secret formulas" might
have almost anything in them (moray eel blubber? skin secretions of
venomous tropical toad? jellyfish jelly?)--but I doubt very much that any
of the popular commercial varieties of cork grease destroy the tenon glue,
usually contact cement. I do think it's possible that *overuse* of any
cork grease with a high moisture content can slime up the tenon so much
that the cork itself rots.

Lelia Loban

-------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WOODWIND.ORG ANNUAL DONATION DRIVE IS GOING ON NOW! VISIT
https://secure.donax-us.com/donation TO FIND OUT ALL THE FACTS!
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org

   
     Copyright © Woodwind.Org, Inc. All Rights Reserved    Privacy Policy    Contact charette@woodwind.org