Author: Chris P
Date: 2017-11-06 09:52
Buffet use peel'n'stick key 'corks' (they're high density foam shapes) across their entire range - while that may be acceptable on a B12/Prodige, it's an absolute farce when fitted to their top line of clarinets as you'd expect an instrument of that level and price to have far more hand finishing done to reflect that.
I don't compress cork strips when I replace tenon corks - I cut them to the required width, bevel one end, glue the strip in place in the tenon slot, trim the excess off and file it down, then sand them down to a barrel shape and they're good to go. I mount the joints in a lathe and spin them at high speed to sand them down to get an even finish.
It seems to be a thing in the US that flat sided tenon corks are the more popular type (as opposed to barrel-shaped tenon corks) and I've also seen them with square leading edges instead of having been rounded or bevelled to reduce them being torn during assembly. I made the comment 'It would be nice to see the tenon corks when they're finished' on a repair page showing photos of clarinet tenon corks that were left flat sided and square edged, only to find out that was them finished. That just look shoddy and amateur in my books. Look up any 'recently overhauled clarinet' listed on eBay's US site and chances are you'll see flat sided tenon corks.
Depending on the tenon and socket arrangement, the finished thickness of the tenon cork will vary - instruments with wooden sockets won't require the tenon corks to be all that wide (maybe around 0.5-1mm wider in diameter to the tenon itself), but instruments with metal sleeved sockets tend to need much thicker tenon corks as they don't grip as well against the smooth walls of the metal sockets.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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The Clarinet BBoard
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