Klarinet Archive - Posting 000008.txt from 2006/02

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] cork grease
Date: Wed, 01 Feb 2006 11:28:25 -0500

Correction. I'm using LeBlanc in a tube, not Vandoren. Not that it
matters to me considering my earlier post, but I want to keep the
record straight.

Oliver

At 05:00 AM 2/1/2006, you wrote:
>Kurt,
>
>The problem is you see "rotting" corks but can only really guess at the
>cause. Also, there's a huge distance between once-a-year and overgreasing
>every time you get the clarinet out.
>
>Whether it's because of slightly ill-fitting corks or just the natural
>expansion and contraction of a material as soft as cork, I find that
>sometimes I just have to grip too hard and push too much to assemble my
>instruments. So I put a tiny dab of grease on my finger or directly on the
>cork and spread it around. It seems to do no harm to the corks and has
>probably prevented a lot of bent keys over my last 40 years of so of
>playing. As needed, yes, but much more often than annually. It wouldn't be a
>good thing in my opinion to encourage students who don't know what they're
>doing (that's why we call them students) to think that one application of
>grease a year is some kind of standard or goal. Unless you want them to
>spend their repair money having key rods straightened. I know you didn't say
>that exactly, but a student reading your post might have thought you did.
>
>It seems to me most of the posts so far have focused on frequency and miss
>the need to teach students a reasonable way to apply the grease:
>- very small quantity
>- spread it around by hand (fingers)
>- try to apply it away from the bottom of the tenon where it tends to be
>pushed anyway when you assemble the joint
>- wipe the grease off your fingers before you get it all over the keys.
>
>I've seen as much greasy mess on kids' keys as on the corks. Most are
>misusing the stuff not so much by using it too often as by slathering it on
>carelessly and by the ton.
>
>My 2-cents' worth.
>
>Karl
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: kurtheisig@-----.net]
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 6:49 AM
> > To: klarinet@-----.org
> > Subject: Re: [kl] cork grease
> >
> > I have well over a dozen clarinets---all with corks at least
> > 30 years old. I recently did change a tenon cork on my Selmer
> > 9* that I won in a raffle in 1965 and used for 11 years in
> > University and played in several local orchestras, before I
> > started using my Buffets for most classical playing. All my
> > corks fit perfectly. The cork grease I use is what Buffet was
> > providing in the mid-70's---DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT IT IS MADE
> > OF??? LOOKS LIKE IT MIGHT HAVE SOME LANOLIN IN IT.
> >
> > I apply cork grease ---AS NEEDED---ie, maybe once a year.
> >
> > We have rented out hundreds of clarinets in our stores and
> > the primary cause of bad corks appears to be rotting from too
> > much cork grease. The students and customers that head our
> > "Only grease a little for the first month and after that once
> > per year." get very long lived corks.
> >
> > Kurt Heisig
> > Kurt Heisig Music stores
> > Clarinet repairman
> > (CAll about the new Heisig Saxes---(831) 425-5658)
> >
> >
> > >
> > >Bill Hausmann wrote,
> > >>>I have seen it numerous times. The corks were completely
> > saturated
> > >>>with grease, but otherwise intact.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
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