 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: William
Date: 2010-12-01 19:02
I've never heard of this happening before, but a friend of mine just emailed me saying that she got her "old Kaspar out to try it, and the tip just crumbled". Have any of you had any experiance such as this with any mouthpiece and, if so, what caused the material to become so brittle. (No, I do not think she dropped it)
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Author: LarryBocaner ★2017
Date: 2010-12-01 19:20
Very suspicious -- I've been playing clarinet for 70 years -- never heard of a tip "crumbling."
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2010-12-01 19:45
I have worked on hundreds of mouthpiece, of nearly every material (I think) that someone has made a mouthpiece from, and never had one "crumble". Perhaps someone has made a mouthpiece from Graham crackers? (Ummm, cinnamon!)
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2010-12-01 19:50
Maybe it was stored where something off-gassed an element which made the hard rubber unstable?
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Author: David Spiegelthal ★2017
Date: 2010-12-01 20:16
Katrina, that's an interesting thought, we need Dr. Omar (our resident ClariCheminetist) to chime in here............
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Author: skygardener
Date: 2010-12-01 20:51
Considering that rubber is a mix of many elements it's possible that this area of this mouthpiece had too much or too little of one of those elements in this area of the mouthpiece, causing instability.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2010-12-01 23:58
Only when my dog chewed mine up many years ago. I almost crumbled the dog but he was to fast for me to catch him, then I calmed down. He lived a long and happy life, the MP, not so lucky. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2010-12-02 02:21
In the process of cross-linking latex, catalyzed by sulfur the bonds that are formed begin to deteriorate immediately. The Kaspar mouthpieces mainly used old Chedeville blanks from the late 1930's (up to 80 years old now). So, it is remarkable that hard rubber mouthpieces last as long as they do but obviously their state of deterioration has been charmed to yield present day mouthpieces that have, some say, remarkable acoustic properties.
If hard rubber is exposed to heat, sunlight, ozone, and some other air pollutants it accelerates the breaking of bonds and ultimately the structural properties of the rubber. I, as others, have a fairly extensive collection of the old hard rubber mouthpieces but have never experienced one crumbling. Since the old Chedeville blanks were machined out of hard rubber rods it seems that the structural properties and homogeneity of the rubber are better and less likely to have defects than a molded mouthpiece. The formulation of rubber for rod rubber is different than used in molded mouthpieces but molded mouthpieces from the late 1940's through today also have survived well. Crumbling ?? - as always, never say never !!
L. Omar Henderson
www.doctorsprod.com
(Disclaimer - I am involved with making rod hard rubber mouthpieces)
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2010-12-02 12:12
L. Omar Henderson wrote,
>>If hard rubber is exposed to heat, sunlight, ozone, and some other air pollutants it accelerates the breaking of bonds and ultimately the structural properties of the rubber.>>
My husband collects antique and vintage fountain pens and earlier dipping pens. Many of the old pens were made of hard rubber in various formulations. Some of them do indeed deteriorate as described above. The word "crumble" might not be the word he'd choose, but he's seen plenty of old pens that fell apart, often with multiple fractures. Usually these were flea market pens left exposed to sunlight on a dealer's table. Down at the bottom of the typical cigar box lot will be the shards of pens the dealer's already thrown away.
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: NBeaty
Date: 2010-12-02 18:32
I'd like to see a pic to view the "crumbling". How it was stored and what it was stored with would also be of interest.
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