Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2019-10-30 20:43
I always find this discussion relating to oiling or not oiling to be frustrating. I don't remember reading anything here that cited any kind of observational study of the actual effect of oiling.
(To your point 1) There doesn't seem to be any way to verify why instruments *don't* crack. Conversely, I wonder if anyone (it would have to be a major manufacturer or at least a large-volume repair shop) has ever done any kind of correlation study on cracking and demonstrably dry wood.
(To point 2) Do you actually know in some way that oiling *does* make the bore smoother or that craggy surfaces slow down the velocity of the pressure waves? It seems as if that's something that might be set up as an experiment and tested, but probably none of us has done that. It may be true that a rough surface affects the velocity of sound waves, but have you seen something that actually demonstrates this. In any case, is the waves' forward velocity through the bore the whole, or even the major, issue in clarinet sound?
As to the barrel of a rifle, it isn't smooth. It's "rifled" (hence, the name) with spiral grooves that apparently increase the muzzle velocity of the bullet and improve its accuracy. Smooth-bore guns (like muskets and shotguns) don't have the muzzle velocity or the accuracy of a rifle. Maybe some manufacturer should try cutting a spiral groove down the bore of a clarinet to see what would result.
So often - always, in my experience - the positions people take about oiling a clarinet (woodwind?) bore are preceded either explicitly or implicitly with "I think" or "I suspect" or "I believe" or "they say" or, worse, "I feel." Yet Buffet didn't, when I was buying clarinets long ago, recommend ever oiling their bores. As I remember from other discussions here, they haven't changed their recommendation. What manufacturer actually makes a recommendation for oiling. Does any manufacturer condition their guarantee on the owner's doing maintenance oiling?
There may be a reason for routine oiling (I'm not talking about oiling a clarinet that is clearly dried out after not being used) that careful research could support. But there were certainly people in the past - even today, I suppose - who find snake oil to be effective for curing or preventing for all kinds of illnesses and afflictions.
Karl
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The Clarinet BBoard
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