 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Bennett
Date: 2002-11-13 17:56
Where does cork grease go? I use perhaps a "Chapstick" sized tube a year - (I confess I don't really keep track). Some of it gets pushed up onto the tenon's shoulders but most of it seems to vanish. It doesn't appear to be particularly volatile so evaporation or sublimation doesn't seem to be taking it away. But where is it going?
Why do I have to keep reapplying it?
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2002-11-13 18:53
Ever notice how, immediately after assembly, your tone is particularly lush... and with extended play it goes a bit dry?
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Author: Ed
Date: 2002-11-13 19:03
to that great musical instrument home in the sky....
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2002-11-13 19:49
A truly horrible tale about petroleum based cork greases --- Since cork has a lot of void space the grease gets absorbed and crammed into those spaces. As the petroleum based greases break down the cork cell wall it enters into the internal spaces that used to be used for compressibility and rebound but now just fill with the grease. After the cork is completely saturated and has lost all of its useful function your are just riding on a slick of grease that gets squeezed out every time you assemble and disassemble the instrument. Once the surface of the cork becomes degraded, broken, and fractured due to the decomposition of the grease laden cork it gets pushed off in a gooey mess into your tenon socket upon assembly and disassembly and you need more grease just to keep a seal. Once enough cork is sluffed off and the grease will no longer seal, and the joint becomes wobbly then you get the cork replaced. This process can take a few months or a couple of years -and keeps the repair shops in business and you without a horn. Much of the time span to replacement depends on the quality of the cork used on the instrument since some cork tends to absorb more or less of the grease. You could of course use cork treatments that preserve the cork, and grow old before the cork needs replacement.
Disclaimer - I sell cork treatments - The Doctor
The Doctor
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-11-13 21:09
A story from hell, and so well put! I wouldn't like to bde a piece of cork.
Technicians see this story so often.
I love the disclaimer, walking that tightrope so skillfully and worthily.
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Author: Dee
Date: 2002-11-13 21:24
The cork grease also gets wiped off some in handling. For example, when you put your disassembled clarinet in the case, some of it is rubbed off by the case lining. Some rubs off onto the wood of the tenon sockets and then when you wipe out the tenon sockets, that bit of cork grease comes with it. There's probably other losses here and there too.
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Author: Don Poulsen
Date: 2002-11-14 12:35
A tube a year? Isn't that a tad excessive? I'd assume that as long as you can twist the parts of your instrument together/apart without using excessive force, you don't need to add cork grease. It shouldn't be necessary that they slide on or off like Teflon on ice.
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Author: William
Date: 2002-11-14 14:48
"A tube a year? Isn't that a tad excessive?"
One tube a year isn't so expensive. It is having to go through a box of ten to find the right tube that really adds up.
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Author: Donn
Date: 2002-11-14 19:49
Do apply the grease directly from the tube? I have had good results applying a little bit with my fingers, and this prevents using excessive amounts of grease.
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Author: Ilkka
Date: 2002-11-15 10:48
If You have no real cork grease, usual moose fat will do. So load your Berdan and climb to the hill, and you get along for several months.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2002-11-15 10:50
Many of the crappy greases quickly go gummy, so that if they are cleaned OFF, the joints assemble MORE easily. This gummy state is usually the situation when the player feels a need to apply the grease so often that they use a container in a year.
Furthermore, gummy grease residue claims space (thickness) when the joint is assembled, hence OVER-squashing the cork such that it loses resilience.
With a decent grease, as has been discussed many times, from Doctor's Products or Alisyn, one needs very little, and infrequently. A container will last many years.
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Author: TDC
Date: 2002-11-23 19:31
Re Omar Henderson's "Disclaimer"..... it is not. A DiS-claimer denies any connection with a profit-making effort, as in,
"The author does not recommend, or have any connection with the products or companies mentioned herein, nor does he have any financial interest in them."
His is more like a "claimer"!
TDC
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-11-24 02:45
Ah, no:
Disclaimer: a denial or disavowal of legal claim.
It has nothing to do with any sort of profit and/or non profit motive.
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