Klarinet Archive - Posting 000184.txt from 2007/10

From: Glenn Kantor <klarinet@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] New Product for Oiling Grenadilla Wood
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:08:59 -0400

Tom,

I also was one of the initial volunteer testers Omar's Grenad-Oil and my
findings were similar to yours.

I wrote about my experience on the Clarinet Bulletin Board here:

http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=253973&t=253884

Glenn B Kantor (GBK)
----- Original Message -----
From: <Tom.Henson@-----.com>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 7:11 PM
Subject: [kl] New Product for Oiling Grenadilla Wood

> Hello All,
>
> Judging by the subject line of this message I am sure that some will say
> "not again", but I want to go on record as saying that I have been
> fairly convinced by my own past experience that oiling the wood of a
> clarinet did not really do much in the way of any real or lasting
> benefit. In the past, I have experimented with oil immersion on some
> older R-13's that I owned, but nothing that I would try on a newer
> clarinet for sure.
>
> This is also a subject for which there is little actual scientific
> research and many myths about this remain even today. To confuse this
> topic even more, the very companies that make woodwind instruments out
> of Grenadilla wood are just about evenly divided themselves on the
> benefits of oiling the wood with some recommending it and other saying
> it is not needed. I have recently tested a new product on the market
> which has changed my mind about this.
>
> Many of you on this list have either heard of, met at one of the
> Clarinet Fests, or even use products by The Doctor's Products, Omar
> Henderson. He is also a sponsor of this list and I have been using some
> of his products now for several years. Dr. Henderson has a unique
> background as a research chemist for the Center for Disease Control in
> Atlanta, Georgia. As a chemist and someone who loves clarinet, he has
> used his background to research and develop new products for clarinet
> and woodwinds that not only offer superior benefit, but will not harm
> the wood or cork in any way.
>
> This is not so for most of the petroleum based products. Especially so
> because most all bore oil that is sold today is nothing but mineral oil
> based. It's main function is to create a water barrier as it sits on the
> surface of the wood. While it may repel water for a little while, when
> it evaporates and dries it will leave a residue that can clog the pores
> of the wood and do more damage than good. It has been my opinion that
> using this type of oil can actually lead to cracks instead of preventing
> them. The very use of a petroleum based bore oil also does not take into
> account that keeping moisture out of the wood is counter productive and
> very one sided. This type of bore oil actually works against the natural
> process that wood has for maintaining this balance. For these reasons, I
> have never advocated oiling a clarinet.
>
> What Dr. Henderson has created is, in my opinion, a break through
> product for Grenadilla wood. While he does have a product called Bore
> Doctor which is a high grade oil made up of plant extracts, his new
> product called Grenad-Oil goes one step further in that it is an exact
> chemical synthesis of the natural oil found in Grenadilla wood. His
> explanation about this product and how it works is shown below in
> quotes. By the way, many of the clarinet makers use Linseed oil to treat
> the wood as part of their manufacturing process. His response below was
> to a woodwind maker as to why his product would work better for them
> than the Linseed oil.
>
> "Tom indicates that you currently may use linseed oil for Grenadilla
> wood. I do not feel that this is the best oil to use because it will
> polymerize over time and clog the pores of the wood. My own feeling is
> that the wood should be allowed to "breathe" and use the natural
> channels and pores in the wood to take up or give off moisture as is
> done in living wood. The natural Grenadilla oil also acts as a water
> buffer. Nature has designed plant oils to interact well with water -
> otherwise the plant, tree could not live - and the special chemical
> formula of plant oils allows them to bind to water and therefore keep a
> natural water balance in the wood. These plant oils are very unique too
> because the first layers of water are very tightly bound to the oil and
> additional layers are not bound as tightly. When excess water is needed
> to be lost these outer layers are easily removed and escape through the
> channels and pores of the wood. As the wood becomes more dry it takes
> more and more energy to remove the last layers of water so that some
> water is always present unless the wood is totally dried out. Wood
> needs a certain moisture content to maintain its resonant qualities and
> these natural plant oils act to keep this water balance in the wood.
>
> There has always been a controversy about whether one should oil their
> instrument and some of the old and famous teachers in clarinet advised
> against oiling - possibly because they did not have access to the right
> formulations of oils. In my job at the CDC our research facilities here
> in Atlanta Georgia we are tasked to test human fluids, food, and water
> for the presence of environmental toxicants - both man-made and natural
> - very accurately and in minute amounts. Our instrumentation is some of
> the most advanced and expensive in the world for performing these tests.
> I decided that a good scientific project would be to analyze the oil in
> Grenadilla wood and try to recreate this oil using the same building
> blocks used in nature. Interestingly there has been little scientific
> work done on Grenadilla wood and my library research only produced an
> analysis of Grenadilla oil from the 1930's when scientific
> instrumentation was very crude in comparison with today's instruments.
> My first task was to get an accurate analysis of the oil using modern
> techniques. The oil is composed of 97.4 % common fatty acids found in
> all plant oils (although Grenadilla oil has a unique and very different
> composition of rare fatty acids than most other plant oils like almond
> oil, etc.) and 2.6% trace elements and exotic compounds. Using purified
> fatty acids I am able to recreate exactly the oil found in Grenadilla
> wood. In order to faithfully and fully recreate the oil I decided to
> extract the trace elements from real Grenadilla wood sawdust and add
> them to the recreated oil. The end product I call Grenad-Oil and an
> analysis of Grenad-Oil and natural Grenadilla Oil by sophisticated
> technology called Tandem Mass Spectrometry (the gold standard now in
> chemical analysis) yield exactly the same content of all elements in
> each. I have just introduced this Grenad-Oil in the last month. The oil
> is very expensive to produce because of the purity of the compounds used
> and the 2.6% trace element component too is difficult and expensive to
> produce."
>
> Dr. Henderson's explanation about how the wood works to maintain a
> moisture balance was something I had not heard explained in such simple
> terms before and helped me to understand better the natural process that
> wood goes through to maintain this balance and the function that the
> natural oil in the wood plays in the way it holds and releases moisture.
> Therefore, the natural oil acts as an exchange agent between the wood
> and the external atmosphere to maintain a moisture balance. As the wood
> looses this oil content over time, it becomes harder for it to maintain
> this balance. (I also wonder if this would affect the ability of the
> wood to expand and contract as needed to adjust to the external
> atmosphere).
>
> As part of his introduction of this new product, he sent samples of the
> Grenad-Oil to some well known repair shops to get their feedback
> firsthand. He told me that he did not receive a single negative response
> to their testing of this product. He then invited some of his customers
> to test a sample of this product and give him their feedback. Being
> skeptical, I decided not to test it on my clarinets first, but to test
> it on 2 small Grenadilla bells that had been made into key chains while
> on a visit to Morrie Backun's shop during the last Clarinet Fest in
> Vancouver.
>
> Our instructions were to apply a small amount of the oil to the wood and
> let it soak in overnight. These 2 small bells were a medium to dark
> brown color due to never having been stained or treated, so I felt this
> would be a good test. I treated only 1 of the bells and then compared it
> the next day to the other one. To my surprise, the treated bell took on
> an almost black color as if I had stained the wood. The instructions
> also said we could apply additional coats if we liked, letting them soak
> in over night until some oil remained on the surface of the wood the
> next day, which is an indication that the wood will not absorb any more.
> Finally, we were instructed to take a soft cloth and buff off any
> remaining oil and then examine the surface of the wood. Not only did the
> wood take on a black color, but even after buffing off all remaining
> oil, the wood had a depth and shine to it like one had used a high grade
> stain on the wood and sealed it. Granted, it was not a high gloss shine,
> but when compared to the other bell blank that I had it was night and
> day. It was like looking at a finished clarinet vs. one that had not
> been finished. I would be more than happy to share with anyone offline
> the pictures that I took of the difference. Even though the pictures are
> not great, you can still see the difference clearly.
>
> Next, still being the skeptic, I let the treated bell sit out in the
> open air on my desk for several weeks. I fully expected that the oil
> would eventually evaporate and the wood return to the dull brown color
> of the non-treated bell. This did not happen. The wood still felt silky
> to the touch also. Clearly, this oil does more than just sit on the
> surface of the wood and then evaporate.
>
> Having the courage now to try this on my real clarinets, I took the
> opportunity to take my Bb apart to clean the keys while I was at it and
> to prevent any oil getting on the pads. I used a recorder swab which
> looks similar to a type of cleaning tool used to clean fire arms. This
> tool however, has a plastic tip over the metal end to protect the bore
> from getting scratched. I soaked the end of the swab in a little of the
> oil and then coated the inside of the bore. I then took a Q-tip and also
> treated all the tone holes and then finished off with small cotton cloth
> to treat the entire outside of the wood. You can also use Q-tips to get
> into the sockets of the barrels, lower joint, and bell. I let it sit
> over night and then came back the next day to check. The bore had dried
> as well as most of the outside. All sockets and end grain were
> definitely dry. I applied another very light coat and let it sit again
> over night. This time, a light coat of oil remained on all surfaces. I
> then used a silk clarinet swab to remove any excess oil from inside the
> bore. I also buffed the bore by dropping the cord through to the other
> end and the using my foot to hold the end of the cord while I slowly
> moved the clarinet body up and down a few times. I would only recommend
> doing this if you have a silk swab as cotton would be too course of a
> material and might dislodge fibers into the bore. Silk will not leave
> any fibers behind if it is of good quality and is clean.
>
> I then used a soft cloth to clean up the outside. I used clean Q-tips
> that had been dampened in water to clean up the tone holes and remove
> any oil residue. Finally, I used a soft bristle tooth brush to clean the
> posts of any surface debris. I finished buffing the outside of the
> bodies with a horse hair silver brush from Hagerty Silversmiths. This is
> a great brush to clean off dust and debris from the surface and will not
> scratch anything.
>
> I cleaned the keys and then reassembled the clarinet. I was blown away
> by the difference in the way it played. Mind you, I have cleaned my
> clarinet before and know how much of a difference it can make, but the
> thing I noticed most was the sound of the clarinet was more alive, more
> resonant. I could actually feel the clarinet come alive in my hands and
> the response was amazing. This, is addition to the wood looking like it
> had just come out of the factory.
>
> I then treated the bore of my A clarinet and the outside without taking
> it apart (carefully). I wanted to see if I could get the same results
> from just oiling the bore. I'm happy to report that I did. The resonance
> and response were improved on my A clarinet as well. I am now convinced
> that this product has done what no other bore oil I have ever tested has
> and that is to actually make a positive difference in the sound. I am
> also happy to report that the aesthetic benefit to the wood is just as
> positive. The wood has taken on a depth and subtle shine that makes it
> look brand new again. To my great surprise, the wood also smells like a
> new clarinet. I know that sounds ridiculous, but my clarinet smells as
> if it is new. Dr. Henderson told me that others had also reported this
> to him as well.
>
> Disclaimer: I am not getting paid to make these statements and am simply
> a happy customer. No bore oil in the world is going to take a beat up
> clunker and turn it into an incredible clarinet. All things being equal,
> it is assumed that your clarinet is already in perfect playing condition
> to remove any possibility that the improvement you hear is mechanical in
> nature.
>
> I am now curious if anyone else on this list has tested this new bore
> oil and if so, what has your experience been. Oh, and the clarinet maker
> that I mentioned earlier, they have asked that a sample be sent to them
> for testing. They are very interested.
>
> Tom Henson
>
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