 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Stepan
Date: 2004-11-21 11:15
I do not know, if this is not well known fact, but in case it was not let me tell you about what I found...
This will look a bit dangerous, but when carefully done, there is NO DANGER at all.
The answer is: apply heat to the corks. Take a gas lighter, set the flame to be REALLY small (say 5 or 6 mm) and touch the corks with this flame. This must be done VERY QUICKLY, corks can turn a bit browner, but do NOT burn them black. Just heat them. Well they can have a shade of black. Of course, you must not touch the instrument body with the flame. That is why the flame is so small so that it can touch JUST the corks. And do REALLY TOUCH the corks with the flame. We need quickliest transfer of heat possible. If you will try to heat them with flame in some proximity of them, you will heat wood as well, and we do not want to do that.
The corks will expand to their original size.
I would understand that you would hesitate to perform this method on your precious 3 or 4K instrument. But I must repeat again, there is no danger at all when performed carefully. Cork is a good isolant and the wood under it does not even feel any heat. The wood around it does heat A BIT, but because the heat lasts few SECONDS, or even not one whole second - you should not expand it at once, but in parts, do not try to do in all in once, you must be carefull and do the well planned moves... so there comes no danger from this too.
You will find that this is very fast and clean and easy procedure.
The only problem with it is that I do not know yet how long this heat expandature(?) lasts. It can be away in a month...
Post Edited (2004-11-21 11:19)
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Author: Dee
Date: 2004-11-21 12:07
It is both much easier and safer to use the following procedure:
1) Dampen the corks
2) Touch the cork all around with a table knife that has been heated in a flame. Reheat the knife as necessary as it cools off.
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Author: Stepan
Date: 2004-11-21 12:16
I doubt it is easier: you need both flame and knife, two things, and the flame must be big to make your knife hot enough.
I also doubt it is safer, because it the knife slips, it still remains hot and you can burn wood. If your lighter goes in wrong position, you can feel it in advance and stop the flame so there is nothing hot to burn the wood.
The only advantage of your way is that it is milder to the corks.
Post Edited (2004-11-21 18:29)
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Author: Dee
Date: 2004-11-21 12:23
Metal cools fast enough that it will not be hot enough to burn the wood by the time you move it from the flame to the wood. It will be just warm enough to heat and expand the dampened cork.
If you slip with an open flame, you can burn yourself much more readily than with a heated knife. This is the safety issue that I referred to.
When it comes to safety in any activity, open flames should normally be avoided unless there just isn't any other way to do it or unless the alternates have major drawbacks of their own.
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Author: Stepan
Date: 2004-11-21 12:30
But his is just little flamie of a cigaret lighter! Ready to stop whenever you wish. Smaller than a candle flame!
It might be possible that my "direct flame method" make the corks expand better and more durable than your very fine and carefull method. But I do not know...
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2004-11-21 12:37
With no risk of burning the cork, or damaging the timber, wrapping teflon lumbers tape around a loose cork is so success that I thought it had more or less superseded the heat expansion process. With any luck, cork grease will no longer be needed either.
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Author: Stepan
Date: 2004-11-21 12:49
I have already used normal tape on my mouthpiece, but it did not slick well, teflon must be better.
Some people might find teflon tape on their nature wood and cork instrument as an alien material.
Post Edited (2004-11-21 12:50)
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Author: hans
Date: 2004-11-21 18:19
IMO applying a flame directly to a clarinet (unless you are a repair tech who knows what he or she is doing) is a really bad idea.
The knife could be heated safely in boiling water or with a heat gun so that no open flame is necessary, but I like Gordon's plumber's teflon tape suggestion best, since it has no permanent effect on the clarinet - and it's much less costly than having singed cork replaced.
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Author: pewd
Date: 2004-11-21 18:51
how about spending $10 at a shop to have the joint recorked by a professional tech?
no chance of damage that way.
-paul
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2004-11-21 20:32
Stepan wrote "Some people might find teflon tape on their nature wood and cork instrument as an alien material."
Shock-horror! I hope such people don't have synthetic oil, cork grease, bore oil, grain filler paint, pad glue.... polymer treatment of the pad felt, hard rubber mouthpiece, and synthetic antilock material on screw threads!
Is metal "natural", when it is so highly processed and alloyed?
"...I have already used normal tape on my mouthpiece, but it did not slick well, teflon must be better..."
Absolutely no comparison.
Post Edited (2004-11-21 20:34)
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Author: Don Berger
Date: 2004-11-21 22:15
U'r rite Gordon, Hans et al, too much ad-libbing going on here. New corking is the obvious good solution. When I know that a joint's and other cork needs replacement, for a stop-gap, I'll use masking tape for a good fit [with C G if needed] during a pad check-out. I just smile when the terms "natural ,organic, mineral etc" are used as being by far the best, since nearly everything we have available has been"processed" [for very good reasons] to some degree. Just thots in passing! Don
Thanx, Mark, Don
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Author: jmsa
Date: 2004-11-22 16:46
How about a hair dryer as a source of safe heat.
jmsa
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2004-11-23 00:52
I doubt that there is enough temperature. And there would be too much heating of the timber, with the risk of splitting it.
However a more specialised hot air 'gun' would be ideal, not that I have used mine for this purpose.
http://www.malcom.com/products/hotjets.php $500!
Post Edited (2004-11-23 00:53)
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Author: DTH
Date: 2004-11-23 04:20
Listen to Paul, replace the cork with new ones from a reputable tech. The potential for damage of your instrument from the heat would not be worth the risk.
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Author: jbutler ★2017
Date: 2004-11-23 16:45
Expansion of corks through heat is a temporary "fix" for a more permanent problem. I find that cork expanded through heat often compresses back to its "pre-heated" state quite rapidly.
jbutler
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Author: Dee
Date: 2004-11-23 23:20
Yup, I agree that expanding the cork is a temporary fix. One should have it replaced as soon as possible. This and other fixes don't take the place of a new cork. If I'm at home and know it will be a while before I can get to a shop, then I'll expand the cork (with a heated knife not a flame). If I'm not at home and need to do a temporary fix, I'll wrap the cork with whatever I can get, from electrical tape to just strips of plain paper.
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Author: GBK
Date: 2004-11-23 23:59
Dee wrote:
> If I'm not
> at home and need to do a temporary fix, I'll wrap the cork with
> whatever I can get, from electrical tape to just strips of
> plain paper.
I always carry a roll of teflon tape in my clarinet case.
Very cheap insurance in the case of an emergency ...GBK
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Author: BobD
Date: 2004-11-24 16:22
There are two varieties of Teflon tape. The "regular" kind is what is normally used for male threads on galvanized pipe or plastic. The "other" kind is for use on gas pipe. The gas pipe tape is slightly heavier and easier to handle on clarinet tenons. I've used both but still prefer plastic electricians tape which can be stretched "to fit" and will "take" cork grease.
Bob Draznik
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Author: RWW
Date: 2004-11-24 22:12
I have no luck with the heat to the cork method. It mashes right back after one use and has to be re-heated. Teflon tape has also worked but with difficulty and low success. A temporary fix that is so good I am ashamed I have kept it that way for years is to use waxed dental floss. I keep it in my case at all times. I believe something like this was the original joining method before cork and still used on some instruments (recorders or bassoons perhaps?)
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Author: beejay
Date: 2004-11-26 00:06
Soaking the tenon for a couple of hours is enough to make the cork bulge up, in my experience. It usually works unless the cork is outrageously loose, and in that case you need a technician, not a blowtorch.
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Author: Terry Stibal
Date: 2004-11-26 03:16
I've used the lighter/spit on the cork method for over thirty years, with never a single collateral problem. It works particularly well with compressed neck corks on saxophones borrowed for an occasion. Yes, it immediately compresses down and it is not a permanent fix, but it's quick, easy, and uses something that you (until quite recently) could find anywhere.
Of course, once this problem was perceived, I would have the offending cork replaced (even on a loaner horn). It's certainly a temporary fix, and nothing better.
And, I always apply the spit with a finger, never directly onto the neck or joint. I once read of a saxophonist who would put the neck of his old Conn into his mouth to pressure test the seal on an octave key cork. Nothing like the taste of decades old saliva, cork grease, cigarette smoke and assorted other gunk to whet your tastebuds...
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2004-11-26 10:03
It's not done to whet the taste buds, but rather to build up the immune system. Not giving the immune system something to do is now one of the suspect causes of asthma. :-) Just stirring.
Post Edited (2004-11-26 10:04)
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