Klarinet Archive - Posting 000611.txt from 2006/03

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Grapeseed Oil
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:25:54 -0500


Forest Aten wrote,
>Just to add....
>
>Francois Kloc and Buffet does NOT recommend
>oiling the wood.

I'd like to add a warning, too. If you oil, though, please don't use
something aromatic meant for food. I'm an amateur musician and no expert
on clarinets, but I'm an expert on buying them at flea markets, at yard
sales and in "junktiques" stores. Over the years, I've seen *and smelled*
many clarinets oiled with--who knows what? Yeeeeeech, what a mess.

This is old news to people who've been on the list for a few years, since
I've written here before about the insect mausoleums I've found in some of
these cases, including a few containing clarinets made as recently as the
1980s. But for those newer to the list...I've found corks, pads and case
linings rotted, moldy and mildewed from dampness with all sorts of wind
instruments, and I've found insects in all sorts of cases, too; but on
average, the wooden clarinets have had worse insect and rot problems than
the metal and plastic clarinets. I'm convinced that oiling and other
attempts to humidify the wood are the reasons.

The dead (but occasionally living!) insects have included cockroaches,
other beetles, mites, moths, ants, maggots, various other little worms,
spiders, flies, gnats, hornets, wasps and bees. Once the volatile
fractions evaporate from some of these oils, a gummy, even sticky mess can
stay behind. I don't know whether the insects come running before or after
the oil turns rancid and stinks like a dead rat, but it's unmistakably
obvious that orange peels and aromatic oils attract critters. Be
especially wary if you're allergic to bee stings.

Granted, most of these old instruments I buy have languished unplayed in
the cases for years, and may have been stored damp, too. (Someone puts the
clarinet away damp without intending never to play it again.) I think
these problems are far less likely in an instrument case that's being
opened up (aired out) often for practice, especially if the player
practices good hygeine by swabbing out afterwards. I do use scentless bore
oil (Selmer or Leblanc) on any wooden clarinet that seems dried out, but no
way would I use an aromatic or tasty oil on any of my clarinets. I figure
if the stuff smells delicious to me, then archie the Cockroach will love
it, too; and if it smells nasty to me, then Millie the Maggot will swoon
with joy over it....

Lelia Loban

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