 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: RefacerMan
Date: 2018-06-09 02:25
This is really a question for people who do a lot of clarinet repairs. Who sells the absolute best quality natural cork in sheets? I need to get some to replace the cork on mouthpiece and clarinet tenons and the cork I currently have is just not a good enough quality. Thank you for any information you can supply.
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2018-06-09 05:14
Ferree's Tools sells good cork, although I have not bought from many other vendors so don't have much basis for comparison.
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Author: shmuelyosef
Date: 2018-06-09 05:51
JL Smith consistently seems to provide beautiful sheets of cork; it's what I use for clarinet and saxophone tenons.
I like the tech cork from MusicMedic, but the thickness is not very well-controlled. Every sheet can have a taper of as much as .1 mm.
I have found Ferrees to be hit or miss.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2018-06-09 07:21
I bought from many suppliers and generally get good quality from Allied, Kraus, J.L. Smith and Votaw. The former two only sell to repair business, but I think you can buy from the latter two.
However not all sheets in every order are as good and I think you can't return just one sheet from an order (returning cork sheets is probably not worth it regardless unless you order many and return all of them).
It is basically impossible to get the quality that was available just 20 or maybe even 10 years ago, so a lot depends on the quality of the fillers (some are very hard and/or can fall out).
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2018-06-09 11:16
I buy most of my cork from Music Medic, and it's of good quality generally. I do all tenon repairs with it. Dawkes in England sell cork, although I haven't tried theirs.
Tony F.
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Author: Steven Ocone
Date: 2018-06-09 15:24
Most of the cork comes from the same place. I think Music Medic may have a different source.
Steve Ocone
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Author: RefacerMan
Date: 2018-06-10 23:33
Everyone - thank you for your replies. I have a few new sources to try from your responses. Thank again!
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2018-06-11 02:56
Some years ago I purchased my cork directly from a manufacturer in Portugal who I think supplied many of the regular middle men.
I spoke with them and got them to send me cork off-cuts that had been partially processed but had not yet gone through the pore filling stage.
I actually prefer open pores for tenon work as they can act as a sort of reservoir for the cork grease.
The sheets came in some odd shapes as they had not yet been cut into the industry standard rectangles, however that was fine by me, as the first thing one does with a rectangle is cut it up anyway.
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Author: jbutler ★2017
Date: 2018-06-12 21:01
It's all pretty much crap compared to what we used to get many years ago.
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Author: saxlite
Date: 2018-06-14 09:40
Ferree's has been a good supplier for me. Very few open pores, thickness is usually quite well controlled. I have not had good luck with Music Medic; haven't tried Allied yet.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2018-06-15 21:24
I usually buy supplies from JL Smith. They seem to carry everything. If the cork sheets sit around for 10 years or something they will crack when you try to bend them. So wet the cork for maybe 5 minutes and let it dry for a bit and it will be pretty flexible. For example, replacing the joint corks. Wet the cork for 5 to10 minutes and after 4 hours you can cut it to size and glue it to the joint using Contact Cement or whatever your favorite glue is.
You can buy kits of assorted sizes or if you know the exact size you want you can order just that one size. They ship fast.
They even sell tapered rubber plugs to plug up the holes on the clarinet so you can seal one pad at a time and get that perfect seal on each pad. The results are you can get 30 second seals to 1 minute seals on a horn. Often better than going to am average repairman because if they get 2 seconds it's fine for them.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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