 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: stebinus2
Date: 2010-06-24 06:33
Can anyone tell me why you shouldn't put on tenon cork that is cut perpendicular to the grain? I have read this is not the way to do it but have done a couple on my own horns and they look fine and seem just as sturdy. It also helps use up all those pieces that you end up with when you cut the stuff the "right" way. Also, separate question, does anyone have any comment about this "real cork" that you can buy from Ferrees? It sure is cheaper but seems pretty flimsy to me.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-06-24 10:21
Sheet cork is rarely ever cross grain, so you're unlikely to get a large sheet of cork that's cross grain. You can get cross grain cork for decorative use (slicing a wine cork will give you this), but generally if you get a piece of sheet cork it's most likely to have been sawn with the grain (with the pores running perpendicular to the surface).
On a piece of sheet cork, there's no 'right' or 'wrong' way of cutting a strip for a tenon cork. For short strips, cut it from along the short edge and on large instruments (bass clarinets, bassoons, etc.) cut the strip from along the long edge.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Gordon (NZ)
Date: 2010-06-24 13:08
I think there is maybe some confusion here re what constitutes "grain" in cork.
There is not really any grain going up the tree or around the tree. There are holes travelling through most of the cork, along radii (thinking of the cork on the tree).
The large (say 3" x 6" or 12") sheets of cork that we buy has these holes travelling through the THICKNESS of sheet, from one side to the other. If this were timber then we would think of it as being cut "across the grain". Yet the small strips of "cross-grain"cork that we sometimes buy (not for tenons, but for key stops and for cutting cork pads) have these "grain" holes travelling parallel to the plane of the top and bottom of the strips. So 'Cross-grain" seems a bit of a misnomer. All very confusing
In practice, the SHEETS of cork we buy have the holes travelling THROUGH the sheet. On poor quality sheets these holes are not all round, but some are long thin ovals in cross section - effectively slits through the sheet.
This gives the impression of grain ALONG the sheet. These holes are possibly not the normal pores that go through the cork, but rather faults in the way the cork grew. For these sheets, it sure is best to have those slits travelling around the tenon rather than across it, and keep them well away from the edges of that cork strip.
Usually I just throw away bits of cork that have these slits. If I used them, then IMO that would be the most substandard aspect of my work.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-06-24 13:26
Attachment: cork 001.JPG (96k)
This sliced piece of cork in the photo clearly shows a grain pattern in the cork with the lines running up-down.
The pores are the dark lines running left-right in this same photo, but are usually seen as dots on sheet cork.
Incidentally, I wouldn't use this slice as a whole as there are too many pores running across it.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2010-06-24 13:29)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-06-24 14:09
By the way, bottle corks are usually good quality cork and they're worth saving or scrounging from the neighbors. When I need to make a key-bumper where the cork has to be thicker than the sheet cork we use on the tenons, I cut a piece off a bottle cork (lengthwise) and shape it down.
Correction: I deleted so much of a sentence above that I ended up writing, without qualification, that I use thick cork under the register key. Chris caught the mistake, below, so I came back to edit out the goof. I've added what I meant to write, farther down the thread.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
Post Edited (2010-06-24 17:56)
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Author: stebinus2
Date: 2010-06-24 14:24
I guess my reference to the grain confused the issue for me. I always assumed the "grain" lay with the long side of the sheet. So my basic question is is there any problem with cutting cork for tenons across the short side of the sheet as opposed to parallel with the long side?
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-06-24 14:34
"So my basic question is is there any problem with cutting cork for tenons across the short side of the sheet as opposed to parallel with the long side?"
No.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2010-06-24 15:51
Leila, how thick does the register key bumper cork need to be? Tenon cork is usually around 1.6-2mm thick which is still too thick for most keys.
I only use 0.4-0.5mm gasket cork on speaker keys as anything thicker will mean a lot of bending of the speaker key to get good venting, and will leave the touchpiece sitting very high in relation to the thumb bush/ring.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-06-24 17:54
>>Leila, how thick does the register key bumper cork need to be? Tenon cork is usually around 1.6-2mm thick which is still too thick for most keys.>>
Chris, thanks for catching my goof -- in starting out to improve a bad sentence, I forgot what I was doing after I'd deleted most of it. On most clarinets, I do use flat tenon cork for the register key and often I have to sand that cork down. On some old clarinets, though, especially metal clarinets from the 1930s, the register key will open up like a python's mouth if it isn't stopped short with a thick cork.
On modern clarinets, the main key where I use thick bottle cork is the left-hand throat A that crosses over the A-flat, on the opposite side of the clarinet from the register key. Often that A-flat also needs thick cork. The other one that usually needs extra-thick cork is the throat E-flat/D-sharp (lowest trill key, on the side for the right knuckle).
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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