Author: RobinDesHautbois
Date: 2010-07-13 14:25
Your comment on gouge vs. scraping (I suspect) is important. I haven't experimented enough yet, but I believe you are right. My observation so far is that the purpose of scraping is to just let the cane play as naturally as it can. So strange: I have one reed that, when backlit, looks almost fully English, yet it sounds very warm and mellow.
I also believe tying is just as influential as scraping and I prefer the French notion of no overlap at all. Where instability results from no overlap, I blame it on the gouge and/or the shape and/or the staple; but how deeply the shape is tied onto the staple is a whole other issue. In my mind, tying to an specified length should only serve as a guideline.
By smoothing the inside with a hand-scraping tool, are you referring to Fig. 7 on p. 17 of the Barret Oboe Method? I didn't know people still use that. Before gouging, this is completely pointless. Also, Cooper had mentioned certain pre-gougers that squeeze the grains a bit and he didn't like the result. I think with modern means to sharpening knives etc., there is no need to do any smoothing after the gouge. HOWEVER, there is a trick I do to prevent overlapping: after shaping the cane, I use a dull-ish knife to flatten the edges of the cane, just a little bit. This way, instead of sharp edges trying to direct each other out of the way, there are small flat areas resting on each other.
Robin Tropper
M.A.Sc., B.Mus., B.Ed.
http://RobinDesHautbois.blogspot.ca/music
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