Author: clarnibass
Date: 2014-12-18 09:23
>> And, another little tidbit concerned a "preventive" approach used by one player who put some cork grease on the tenon wood below the cork. <<
If you put cork grease on the cork, some will get to the inner wood end of the tenon too, even if you don't put any there. The barrel would "scoop" some and it will move down. Even you put very little cork grease (and more than very little shouln't be necessary anyway).
In maybe 99% of cases (or close to it) the barrel is stuck on bottom inner end of the tenon, not the outer end. So you'd already have some cork grease there even if you didn't actually put any on purpose.
>> And you risk getting the cork grease into the bore, where it can collect dirt <<
I guess if you put a lot of cork grease on the outer wood end of the tenon it might somehow get through when you remove a barrel (not a stuck barrel), but otherwise cork grease get on the wood part of the tenon anyway, at least some (not a lot). Or maybe if you put it on the barrel itself. I wouldn't recommend doing either of those things on purpose, but a bit of cork grease on the wood parts of the tenon really won't cause any problems.
>> If gentle heat works for Walter, and gentle coolness works for Allan, then maybe the truth is that any condition that lowers the surrounding humidity and draws moisture out of the wood will work. <<
I think you're right. Depending on area, at least here it's drier in the winter when it's colder. This cool temp combined with drier air might mean the wood dries more and/or faster. I imagine putting a warm lamp will dry the wood faster than it otherwise would. So I can see why both seem to help.
I guess a question is what would create more of a difference between the tenon and barrel. When a metal ring is hotter, both inside and outside diameters get larger. Is it the same for wood? Is it consistent. I'm not sure. Then a question is which of those would increase the difference.
I think the recommendation (that I don't especially like) to put the clarinet in the fridge causes some parts to move slightly, helping to "break" the bond. I definitely hear more wood furnitures making wood noises in the winter... but it's also drier then. OTOH if the inside diameter of increases when warm, it's possible the barrel will expand more than the tenon, so warming from the outside can help. I'm not sure if this is consistent.
What is sure is that I see more stuck joints in the winter, including some that were fine just the summer before. So I'm leaning towards somewhatt warm and dry being optimal, but it's just a guess really. I'm going to look more into it.
>> My experience is that these binds don't just happen all of a sudden one day. <<
That's definitely true. Just last week I had an unusual case. A player brought her clarinet for a few different repairs, including reducing the wood at the tenon because it was difficult to put and remove the barrel. Actually that day she couldn't remove it. She left the clarinet here and the next day when I came to work on it, the barrel came off easily. Actualyl you couldn't even feel that slight friction that you can almost always feel when the wood is too thick. It felt completely normal. I guess sometimes the wood can swell enough to change from a completely good fit.
>> I follow up by sanding down the cork a bit so it won't stick again. <<
Sorry about mispelling your name, it was just a typo.
Re the cork, in 99% of cases the cork has nothing to do with the barrel (or any part) getting stuck.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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