Author: kroboe
Date: 2005-09-26 14:02
Many interresting points have been made on this string. Understandably it seems that lack of time is the main reason why people don't go into reedmaking. Perhaps there are also variations in "culture" depending on where on the globe you live. In my part of the world you would probably keep it to yourself if you did not master reedmaking but still wanted to give the impression of beeing a serious oboist. Most people I know have a small carpentry at home for this purpose. I won't keep on stressing the arguments for getting into reedmaking. To me it's just so obvious. But there are ways of getting around the time problem, or at least reducing time consumtion drastically, and at the same time inreasing your successrate and reducing your expences equally significantly. After 15 years of timeconsuming reedmaking by hand i found that something had to be done. I spent too much time in my reed-carpentry. My former teacher's words kept ringing in my ears: Playing the oboe is 50% reedmaking and 50% playing the instrument. In the long run I found this intolerable. So, 10 years ago I bought myself a profiler, which is a chisel for the outside scrape of the reed. As it tourned out, this ment nothing less than a revolution to me. Suddenly I could make reeds in a fraction of the time it used to take. Reeds that would crow easily came straight out of the machine, and they only needed the usual minor adjustments to be finished. A small wonder! But you still have to master the tecnique of binding the guaged and shaped cane onto the staple, and you have to master the tecnique of adjusting the finished reed to your needs. But the main part of the scraping job during which most reeds's potential are ruined, is reduced to a piece of cake. Just consider the benefit of having two identically scraped blades on the reed to adjust, and indeed of getting reed after reed that in the outset will have identicall scrapes.
The profiler is an expensive piece of machinery, but I have not regretted buying one for a second! For, have no illusions, the reed problem will follow you as a shadow for the rest of your life, or for as long as you will play the oboe. So, if you want to make the trying life of being an oboist slightly easier on yourself my recommendation is to get yourself a profliler.
kroboe
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