Author: OboeDad
Date: 2012-01-29 02:23
Thank you, everyone, for sharing your experiences and helpful suggestions. Rest assured that I will not blame my daughter if/when her oboe does crack. ;-)
Reading this thread, other threads on this topic, and other sources on the internet, there appears to be essentially universal agreement that rapid temperature changes pose the greatest risk for cracking, though it's not clear whether this should be attributed to the direct effect of temperature or associated changes in humidity. From my own pseudo-scientific and "oboe ignoramus" perspective, I deduce that the single most dangerous thing is blowing hot, humid air into a cold oboe.
Not many people seem to do "the shower thing," but at least no one spoke of negative experiences with deliberate exposure to such humidification. We'll be careful not to over-do it, and not to expose the oboe to a rapid increase in temperature as part of that process.
I can't stop myself from trying to synthesize all your information into a complete explanation. FWIW, my hunch (and again, this is obviously just my own ignorant opinion) is that cracks result from differential drying of the outside vs. the inside of the oboe. That is, in the cold winter months, the dry heat of our homes result in drying of the oboe's wood. This occurs slowly, just like a piano loses its tune over a matter of weeks, not all of a sudden. Meanwhile, the inside of the oboe stays well-hydrated because it is frequently getting blown into. The crack happens when the gradient between the inside and outside gets sufficiently large, either because the slow drying of the outside has reached a critical point, or because the inside suddenly gets heated (and perhaps expanded, though Robin's brother would downplay this), or a combination of the two.
Last question: Do folks think that, in the tight, well-compartmentalized confines of an oboe case, the humidity from a Humistat of Dampit really circulates all throughout the case?
Anyway, thank you all again.
- P
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