Klarinet Archive - Posting 000041.txt from 2007/08

From: X-BakerBotts-MailScanner-tom.henson@-----.com
Subj: RE: [kl] Machining wood
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 13:05:54 -0400

Thanks Clark for taking the time to share this information. It is very
informative.

Wurlitzer also buys their wood from Nagel who are from Hamburg. They are
one of the top suppliers for high end African Blackwood from what I
hear.

Below is a pretty interesting article in English about the man who works
for Theodore Nagel and his job is to find the right trees to cut down
for Nagel.

http://www.jdnews.com/onset?db=3Djdn&id=3D674&template=3Darticle.html

Regarding your comment about Blackwood being "naturally wet", we have
discussed on this list (at length) the merits of needing to oil the bore
of a clarinet. I had heard a story about Hans Moennig who was said to
have a small container filled with oil in his shop. Inside was a piece
of Blackwood. Whenever anyone brought up the subject of oiling the bore,
he would pull this piece of wood out of the oil and cut a portion off to
reveal the inside which showed very little, if any, absorption of oil.
The moral to the story being that Blackwood is so dense that it will not
absorb enough oil to make any real difference. How the wood is aged and
cured is the more important thing in the long run.=20

I have to say that when I ordered my Wurlitzer clarinets I was concerned
because Wurlitzer offers absolutely no warranty against cracking. None.
I was told that the incidence of their clarinets cracking is so remote
that they simply have not had an issue with this policy with their
customers. I must say that they are obsessed with every aspect of how
they handle the wood from aging to production. With such a small volume
of clarinets that they produce this system works well for them, but
would not work well for someone like Buffet. That may explain why
Buffet, and Selmer treat the body blanks in a pressurized and heated oil
bath before finishing the pre-drilled blanks. Call it a hot oil
treatment if you like. This is probably done to improve the
manufacturing process as much as anything and may put the wood in a
state that is easier to machine with less stress to the wood. Selmer
even has a picture of this hot oil treatment on their website. It is all
in French though. Click on the link that says "Frabication", then
"Clarinettes". They have two pictures that show wooden blanks in a metal
basket and then the pressurized tank that they are "cooked" (for lack of
a better word) in.

http://www.selmer.fr/

Tom Henson

<< Clark Fobes said: =20

Depending on how green the wood may be, we can see the wood "sweat"
as the drill bit pierces the blank. It has become very clear to me that
African Blackwood is naturally very wet. The wood I am working through
now was bought from Theodore Nagel in 2005 and they said it had been on
the shelf at least 10 years. We still see the material sweat as we work
on it, but it dries quite well once the blank is through bored. I think
your point that clarinets must be machined over several days if not
weeks is well taken. >>

=20

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