Author: mschmidt
Date: 2012-07-19 14:32
The phenomenon of the reed getting harder in the first few days as it is being scraped seems definitely to be the case. I have wondered if there are components of the cane that are oxidized once they are exposed to air due to scraping. I live in Southern California and we have fairly high ozone levels here; rubber bands don't last long exposed to the air, and this may affect the degree of oxidation of cane if that is in fact what is going on.
As for older reeds that are not played a lot, I don't have as reliable an impression of what happens. I do remember my first oboe teacher saying that reeds could be "refreshed" by a light scrape, and I have on occasion found that to be the case. It may be that adsorbed proteins from saliva, or organisms that we don't like to think about growing on our reeds, may add to the mass of the tip, thereby requiring more energy to vibrate. This sort of an effect might be much more pronounced if you have very thin tips.
Mike
Still an Amateur, but not really middle-aged anymore
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