 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: pelo_ensortijado
Date: 2007-05-13 16:03
i did a strange thing today.
took away all the keywork and washed the wood properly. then i cleaned the toneholes and bore.
used just fingerwarm water. dont worry. and cleaned it with boreoil. now it plays like new!! its sooo easyblowing again!!!
is this common use? or have i done something really wrong washing it?
oh. and the wood started to show when washing it. but it became dark again when i put the boreoil on. i think the woodcolor of grenadilla is much nicer than just black. is there clarinets made without painting???
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2007-05-13 16:28
did you use soap?
did you really submerge your clarinet in water? how long?
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-05-13 17:14
Sounds like washing a clarinet would be a good idea. As long as you make sure you use grenedilla friendly techniques. Did you also put a little grease on the posts or screws and rods that go through them?
I'd probably look at Doc's Products for something grenadilla friendly. Or search on the board (maybe there'll be some responses here). But it sounds like a good idea to give it a nice wash every now and then.
As far as clarinets that are just the regular clarinet color, buffet prestige clarinets aren't dyed. My leblanc opus clarinets aren't stained. And older (really old) clarinets aren't. I think if you do a search you can find which ones aren't. And maybe find a roundabout time when companies started to stain the clarinets (it's mostly to cover up imperfections in the wood).
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2007-05-13 17:25
(Disclaimer - I sell cleaning and oiling products)
Other than the cosmetic cleaning apects I feel that cleaning the outside of the clarinet is useful to remove the gunk (oil from the wood combining with dust and other air pollutants) that clogs the pores of the wood which are a major moisture transpiration (taking in or giving off moisture) mechanism for the wood. I would not submerge the instrument and also not use a solvent or detergent that removes too much oil from the wood. I find that cleaning unstained clarinets removes the dulling gunk and gives a deeper depth of luster to the natural grain and beauty of the wood.
L. Omar Henderson
www.doctorsprod.com
Post Edited (2007-05-13 17:26)
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2007-05-13 17:32
I wash all the clarinets I'm fixing. I use a bottle cleaner, mild liquid hand soap (that lipid regulating/remoisturizing stuff) but only rinse once to wet the joint, then clean, then rinse again to clean it. I thoroughly dry it with a towel and a swap, blow through post and toneholes, and wrap it in a towel to dry out for a day or two. After that I oil and reassemble it.
If wood can stand hours of spit, it should stand five minutes of cleaning...
--
Ben
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Author: William
Date: 2007-05-13 17:38
One of my beginning clarinetist decided to wash her clarinet, but neglected to remove the keys--just immersed the entire, assembled instrument in a warm bathtub bubblebath at home. Fortunately, it was a Bundy Resonite and only needed a few new pads. She had apparently listened more intently to the brass maintaince lecture than the woodwind............
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Author: pewd
Date: 2007-05-13 17:49
we had a thread on this recently.
i use murhpy's oil soap, scrubbing with an old toothbrush. rinse in room temp water - lots of it to get the soap off.
you wouldn't believe the color of the rinse water on the wood clarinets that are used outside on the marching field, gray to black on some of them. i guess that tells us something about environmental pollutants in the air.
then dry by swabbing and then wrapping the joints in a cotton towel.
a few hours later, I oil the springs and post locking screws to prevent rust (light amount of key oil on a qtip). i also run a pipe cleaner through the posts - e.g., where the pivot screws go, theres water left in there if you don't.
compressed air like you can get at camera shops works well too.
this is followed by the doctors bore oil.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: jbutler ★2017
Date: 2007-05-13 18:19
Although I do not wash clarinets anymore there was a time when I did. I used Murphy's Oil Soap and put joints separately using glass cont ianers in my ultrasonic cleaner. After rinsing I then would blow dry the joints with compressed air. I've since found a different technique that works just as well and doesn't involve the use of water.
jbutler
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-05-13 19:43
WARNING!!!! THIS IS JUST A QUESTION! DO NOT ATTEMPT WHAT I AM ABOUT TO ASK! I AM ONLY ASKING FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!!!
What about heating the wood slowly to raise any oils? Sort of low-temp "baking" the clarinet? Since I've read that it's the difference in humidity and temperature from the inside and outside of a clarinet (warm air through a cold clarinet) that cracks it, what about 'baking' the clarinet? Would that cause impurities to rise out of the wood? Or is this is ludicrous thinking from a 'very tired, should be asleep person cause it's way past my bedtime' person?
Alexi
US Army Japan Band
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Author: pelo_ensortijado
Date: 2007-05-13 20:07
skygardener:
no i used no soap at all. just regular water from the tap. (dont worry. its a rich contry, we have drinking water to wash of dirt with. as we think of the poor africans who have to drink water we wouldn't **** in...)
first i cleaned it with boreoil and then washed it with water. dryed it with a towel and putted the keys back. just putting "sewingmachineoil"(very very thin oil) on the screws and then in with it all. worked perfect!!
nothing is wrong so far. works perfect.
alexi:
think that heating would be intresting. if you try. post it here so we know the results. :D
i think that it might work. but im just a kid in most of you peoples eyes so i dont really know. haven't experimented with these kind of things before. it maybe crack the wood...
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2007-05-13 20:18
Alexi, you have spent too long in the Iraq sun! The "impurities" are the surface oil that has combined with dust and other air pollutants to form the oil gunk that dulls the wood and clogs the pores. Since Grenadilla is such a dense wood there are probably no other impurities below a few microns of the surface. Heating will bring oil to the surface but removing it creates an oil deficit overall in the wood. Heating or cooling the clarinet is an insult and if your clarinet is prone to cracking it is not a good idea to add insults. Heat is probably less troublesome than cold but neither is a good idea IMHO. The old saying that clarinets come in three types 1) those that will crack no matter how well you treat them, 2) those that might crack if given an insult or series of insults, and 3) those that will never crack no matter what. Since none of these designations is stamped on the clarinet the prudent person tries not to issue insults to their instrument and takes precautionary steps to avoid insults.
L. Omar Henderson
www.doctorsprod.com
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2007-05-13 21:24
> Since Grenadilla is such a dense wood (...). Heating or cooling the clarinet is
> an insult (...)
But would Grenadilla, not being very bright, notice an insult? ![[tongue]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie6.gif)
Sorry. Couldn't resist the pun...
--
Ben
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2007-05-13 21:31
-- "took away all the keywork and washed the wood properly. then i cleaned the toneholes and bore.
used just fingerwarm water. dont worry. and cleaned it with boreoil. now it plays like new!! its sooo easyblowing again!!!" --
From my experience, the reason it feels great is simply that you've loosened the keywork a bit by taking it apart, oiled it, and perhaps cleaned a partially clogged tone hole. Oh, and maybe better seated an ill fitting pad.
Why on earth would anyone want to wash the wood? What's wrong with the occasional wipe?
-- "you wouldn't believe the color of the rinse water on the wood clarinets that are used outside on the marching field, gray to black on some of them." --
Er...what's the colour of the stain they use on grenadilla clarinets?
Steve
Post Edited (2007-05-13 21:32)
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Author: pewd
Date: 2007-05-13 21:43
some of what comes of is stain, sure.
but that wont explain the dark colored water coming off unstained clarinets.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2007-05-13 22:10
Grenadilla (and all kinds of wood) has it's own natural colour which will leech into water - which is why you get staining on pads.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2007-05-14 04:30
Thanks Omar. Guess I was a little off my rocker last night.
US Army Japan Band
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Author: pelo_ensortijado
Date: 2007-05-14 17:48
----------------
stevensfo wrote:
From my experience, the reason it feels great is simply that you've loosened the keywork a bit by taking it apart, oiled it, and perhaps cleaned a partially clogged tone hole. Oh, and maybe better seated an ill fitting pad.
Why on earth would anyone want to wash the wood? What's wrong with the occasional wipe?
----------------
well... to start with. there was A LOT of dirt and stuff comming out of the toneholes. and some white things that was in one hole came of.
probably that was making it so easyblowing now. :P
i think like this when it comes to washing:
the wood once was a living material who used water as a energysource. so water cant be bad for it! more likely its just great to even bath it from time to time. have it in water for. a day maybe? nothing i have tested or planing to do if someone tells me not to. im just thinking....
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Author: stevensfo
Date: 2007-05-14 21:17
-- "i think like this when it comes to washing:
the wood once was a living material who used water as a energysource. so water cant be bad for it! more likely its just great to even bath it from time to time. have it in water for. a day maybe? " --
Except that it didn't use water as an energy source, any more than humans do. The tree used water like us, to keep our cells full, circulate nutrients around it and basically transport things around.
Like dead animals, the way you preserve them has little resemblance to when they're alive. You don't soak a clarinet in water and expect it to suddenly sprout leaves. Likewise, you don't keep great uncle Alfred encased in a fish tank in the living room as a conversation piece.
The clarinet is no longer a living thing. It is dead. It has ceased to be. It is an 'ex-tree'.
Steve
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Author: GBK
Date: 2007-05-14 21:49
stevensfo wrote:
> You don't soak a clarinet
> in water and expect it to suddenly sprout leaves. Likewise,
> you don't keep great uncle Alfred encased in a fish tank in the
> living room as a conversation piece.
I nominate that for "The quote of the week" ![[grin]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie5.gif) ...GBK
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2007-05-15 11:55
>>Why on earth would anyone want to wash the wood? What's wrong with the occasional wipe?
>>
Because:
> You don't soak a clarinet
> in water and expect it to suddenly sprout leaves. Likewise,
> you don't keep great uncle Alfred encased in a fish tank in the
> living room as a conversation piece.
...but people do keep great uncle Clarinet in the wet basement for forty years. It doesn't sprout leaves, but it does sprout some very interesting specimens of mold, mildew and fungus. Also, if you're into insects as gourmet treats, you can find some unusually well-aged yummies preserved in leaky old clarinet cases. And, what an interesting perfume! Bouquet de rotted baby mouse, anyone?
You get a clarinet like that at somebody's estate sale and, believe me, you don't need to ask anyone if it's a good idea to take off all the keys, remove and destroy all the corks and pads, gut and re-line the case and, yes, dunk the whole clarinet, not only to clean it but to drown anything that's still alive in there.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: pelo_ensortijado
Date: 2007-05-15 12:47
well...mine where in use daily before i got it. but i still had some really nasty stuff in the toneholes. fungus and stuff...
and about drowning the clarinet:
has anyone done research on this? is it A FACT that you shouldn't drown it? or just something that everybody "knows"?
i remember from the buffet makers notes that someone(was is skygardener?) tiped me about a while ago, that it was no need to oil the inside of the clarinet because it got enough water when playing constantly. the outside he recommended to wet from time to time. if im not misstaken. or keep something moisturestuff in the case. and that made it less dry and did not cause it to crack.
that made me think about drowning clarinets. to let it be filled up with water in every pore. dont know. but it sort of make sense to me.....
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2007-05-15 12:58
The problem with drowning probably isn't the wood but the metal pillars and rings etc which might start to rust. And completely stripping a clarinet is a tricky business, there's always the risk of damaging a screw thread or breaking something.
Drowning the joints in oil seems to be a common (or not an uncommon) procedure in restoring an older instrument.
--
Ben
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Author: Vytas
Date: 2007-05-21 00:08
Attachment: pic1.JPG (195k)
Attachment: pic2.JPG (113k)
> *** Why on earth would anyone want to wash the wood? What's wrong with the occasional wipe? *** <
I'm sure; the clarinet in the pictures received many occasional wipes and looked almost new. But the looks can be deceiving sometimes. It had so much dirt on it you wont believe me if told you.
Vytas Krass
Clarinet Repair
Professional clarinet technician
Custom clarinet mouthpiece maker
Former professional clarinet player
Post Edited (2007-05-21 00:47)
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Author: C2thew
Date: 2007-05-21 05:22
Ahh before this goes too far.... the message posted about drowning the wood.....
think of diffusion. wood is a dense piece of material, whereas the outside pressure of the water has no pressure. thus when you immerse the wood for a long period of time, the wood will expand as the water will try to achieve a state of balance from going hi density to low density. the result? the wood will swell, and WILL result in cracking. think of throwing a log into a lake. the minute you pull it out and try to dry it off, it's still soaked wet and heavier then when you threw it in.
wanna crack your instrument? go nuts. clean it? that's a okay. especially dry wood clarinets. they will take water so fast and expand in it's own respect that weak areas will split open
beware of cracks. you've been warned. =)
i'm assuming bore oil is an exception of (soaking it, however i just put a little on) bore oil is denser then water, so it's probably less likely to diffuse from hi to low as fast as water would.
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. they are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which was already but too easy to arrive as railroads lead to Boston to New York
-Walden; Henry Thoreau
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2007-05-21 06:50
Actually, afaik, grenadilla wood absorbs water very slow, so drowning it for not too long should also be ok. Although I don't know why anyone would want to drown it? What's the problem with simply washing it with soap?
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Author: stevesklar
Date: 2007-05-22 16:47
Vytas - in your pics. Is the clarinet body actually growing leaves or is there a plant behind it ??
trying to contradict :
" You don't soak a clarinet
in water and expect it to suddenly sprout leaves. "
;-)
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Author: Vytas
Date: 2007-05-22 20:58
> *** Vytas - in your pics. Is the clarinet body actually growing leaves or is there a plant behind it"?? *** <
I thought you'd never ask. Behind it in the pics is the Lower-Joint from the set that have been in water for too long.
Vytas Krass
Clarinet Repair
Professional clarinet technician
Custom clarinet mouthpiece maker
Former professional clarinet player
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