 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-11 00:58
A curiosity thing...
If warpage results from the uneven drying of a reed, why wouldn't its drying, facing down on a flat surface, with some pressure, be better in resisting such warpage tendencies than the convention of letting reeds dry face up?
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-05-11 01:11
I'm not sure what you mean by "facing down." Which side (flat or the vamp) is toward the flat surface (glass, I would assume)?
KArl
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Author: alanporter
Date: 2016-05-11 02:06
I always dry reeds flat side down on a piece of plate glass. Makes sense to me.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-11 02:13
Sorry Karl. I think I'm confusing the warpage of a reed's flat side, such that air cavities might exist between it, laid on a piece of glass, and crinkling of its tip.
But again, wouldn't pressured placement of the reed, flat side down, (the reed's flat side in contact with the glass or flat surface) not up as some report doing, possibly help either of the warpages you or I describe?
Post Edited (2016-05-11 02:15)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2016-05-11 02:25
Tip crinkling doesn't generally happen until you wet the reed, so I don't imagine it makes much difference in that regard how you dry it.
My experience with drying reeds flat-side-down on a non-porous surface like glass has been consistently that the backs of the reeds warp - become bowed with the high area in the center. No reed holder that I've ever tried applied enough pressure to the top (vamp side) of the reed to overcome the tendency of the wood to contract more in the area that's drying faster so that the edges pull upward away from flat. Players who don't allow their reeds to dry completely, I assume, avoid warping because they reduce the extent to which the cane dries at all.
If someone (Alan?) tells me that he dries his reeds completely after playing them flat-side-down against a piece of glass (with or without pressure on the reed), I won't argue that he's wrong, but only that it contradicts my own experience. I can't make a convincing physicist's argument - maybe someone else here can - one way or the other.
Karl
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2016-05-11 03:57
My theory - and it's nothing more - is that letting the reed dry in as unstressed way as possible is good. It will probably dry at a non-uniform rate due to varying density in different parts of the reed. It may well crinkle a little during that time, if allowed to - and I think it should be allowed to. If held flat, than the crinkling force may get somehow stored in the reed. Beware the Crinkling Force.
I dry reeds (after washing) on a porous surface, i.e., a paper tissue, face up. Once they're dry, there's no crinkle.
My perception has been that during later wetting before playing, the reed again passes through a crinkle stage, but if the reed was dried unstressed then this later crinkling takes relatively little time. I wet the whole reed in a cup of water.
Self-contradictory caveat: I don't think it matters much. If some method causes bowing, then that would matter, but my experience hasn't included that.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-11 04:36
I would like to add that I find the Reed Geek product excellent at detecting and correcting the warping Karl describes
--and I get it now...conventional wisdom suggests the pressure needed to keep a reed stored flat side on a smooth service from warping (not its tip crinkling until water is reintroduced) is probably prohibitive; thanks.
Post Edited (2016-05-11 04:44)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2016-05-11 05:14
Reed bottoms warp down the center because the bark on top doesn't expand to leave room on there.
I *want* the reed to warp -- as much as possible. I then put it on a sheet of 400 sandpaper over glass and sand it down flat as many times as necessary to make it stable.
The problem is much worse on bass and contra reeds. I buy them at #5, but by the time they're stable, they're down to where I prefer them at around #3 or even #2-1/2.
If you store reeds dry, as I do, the tip always crinkles when you wet it. This is because the thin and thick fibers absorb water at different rates. For me, soaking in a saucer of water for 4-5 minutes solves the problem. Oboists and bassoonists do the same.
Ken Shaw
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