 The Clarinet BBoard
|
Author: MRidgeP
Date: 1999-04-01 22:15
I was wondering if anyone could provide me with information concerning reed rush. Eg. It's uses, instructions, and whether it's worth the time. I'd also like to hear people who have used reed rush and find if it has made a dramatic difference in their reeds or if it's just a waste of time.
Thanks for your help,
Matthew Parker Ridge
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Evan
Date: 1999-04-02 00:51
I use them all the time, i find they work the best for finishing after using a reed knife. they don't take much off by themselves. There is a picture of where different places on the reed make a reed have different character at www.saxcafe.com
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Pam L
Date: 1999-04-03 00:37
I was taught by my teacher using reed rush. He actually had some (or something really close) growing in his fish pond in the backyard, so we mostly used that, although I've bought it at my favorite clarinet repair shop before. I use it to make preliminary adjustments to uncooperative reeds rather than a knife, and then typing paper to polish things off. I've seen some suggestions to use fine and ultrafine wet-dry sand paper instead, but have never tried it.
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 1999-04-05 18:56
MRidgeP wrote:
-------------------------------
I was wondering if anyone could provide me with information concerning reed rush. Eg. It's uses, instructions, and whether it's worth the time. I'd also like to hear people who have used reed rush and find if it has made a dramatic difference in their reeds or if it's just a waste of time.
Thanks for your help,
Matthew Parker Ridge
Matthew -
The plant has several names - reed rush, horsetail rush, Dutch rush. It grows only in sandy soil and takes up some of the silicon into itself, which you can use as an abrasive. It's a type of grass that grows in bright green, segmented stalks with vertical striations, starting out a few inches long and the thickness of a pencil lead, with segments about an inch long and growing to 2 1/2 feet with the diameter of a pencil and segments up to 3 inches long. If you look at it in bright sunlight, you can see the reflections off the silicon crystals.
It grows wild along sandy lake shores. One of the small benefits of going to Interlochen is that you can pick rush all over the place. Florists usually have some and will probably give you a stalk or two, or sell one at a modest price. Better that than the overprice dried out stuff sold at music stores.
Rush works nicely as a very fine abrasive for giving the ultimate polish to reeds and smoothing things down. However, it doesn't have magical properties. It's simply a tool. It's hard to make mistakes using rush, because it takes off so little -- maybe that's the mystique.
The best size is about 2/3 grown, with segments about 2 inches long. Pull apart the segments and cut off the ends. If you use fresh rush, flatten out about 1/4 inch at the end and rub the vamp of the reed with the flattened part with the tip of your index finger on top. Use it only on the vamp, on top of the reed, and not on the bottom, which has to be sanded absolutely flat on sandpaper or a file.
With fresh rush, you should prepare all the pieces at once and then let them dry in open air or wrapped loosely in newspaper. If you wrap them in plastic, they will rot.
Flattening them first means you won't have to soak them and do it later, when there's the possibility of cracking.
In addition to smoothing the surface, rush creates a very fine dust, which, as you rub back and forth, gets pushed into the hollow fibers at the surface of the vamp. This has at least a small effect on blocking waterlogging by keeping saliva out of the fibers. However, I think sandpaper does the same thing.
I used rush for several years but now don't use it at all. I find it much easier to use a reed knife and then finish with a Revlon Diamond Dust everlasting fingernail file (the one with the rounded tip), which I've been using for many years, and with a thoroughly worn out narrow strip of 600 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper. These are thinner than the rush and give me better control.
Best regards.
Ken Shaw
|
|
Reply To Message
|
|
The Clarinet Pages
|
 |
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
