 The Oboe BBoard
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2018-12-08 21:35
After literally years of trying and several reed making teachers, I was a complete failure and could not even adjust a reed. In fact, that was what I *most* could not do, was the end point adjustment. So there was no point buying nearly finished reeds because I couldn't adjust them. Every single one I touched, I wrecked totally. I could get easily to the point of having a well-sealed blank (starting with gouged cane,) but after that....nuttin. Failure after failure after FAILURE. And all messed up in pretty much the same way no matter how hard I tried. I basically gave up trying to play because of not being able to adjust bought reeds either.
Then, in my continuing quest to learn, I bought the Weber book on reed making, and it just happened to have a section on knife sharpening that had that ONE tidbit of information I was lacking all this time. It must be one of those "obvious" things that doesn't "need" to be taught. That was that the very edge of the blade has a wedge shape of its own. I had NO IDEA that this was how the edge of the blade was supposed to look; all this time (years, literally, and with several teachers showing me how to make reeds) I was trying to have a knife edge that was a steady taper from the thick side of the blade, on both sides, to get the edge. People showed me how they sharpened but it never made any sense to me because they never said what they were doing in terms of the actual "wedge on the edge, so I wasn't successful with their methods either. Only in the Weber book was it said what the actual edge needed to look like. Apparently too obvious to teach by anyone else.
I finally am not trying to make reeds with the edge equivalent of a butter knife and absolutely instantly have been able to do the fine adjustments that I thought I didn't understand but instead simply did not have the proper tool. I'd always take chips out of the tips, have to push hard with the knife, and none of the supposed teachers taught me the concept of what the shape of the edge of the knife was supposed to look like. SHEESH.
I also got a sharpening steel, and my kitchen knives are also deadly now.
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Author: oboi
Date: 2018-12-08 23:08
I am changing the way I am sharpening my knives, which questionable success. I'm attempting to follow the instructions from Daryl Caswell's reed sharpening book. Bought an India stone and a steel as well (I used to use a Japanese water stone), so trying to adjust to those as well. Has anyone tried to use Caswell's instructions on sharpening double hollow ground knives?
I'm starting to like more and more my bevelled knife and if I can get it a little bit sharper and be able to be more gentle for fine work with it, I may just forget about the double hollow ground altogether.
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2018-12-09 22:18
In retrospect I was doing way too much because what I was doing was wrong to start with. Going farther down the same path didn't help any. I actually had been considering switching to a razor knife because I could just change blades and didn't have to fiddle with trying to sharpen it. I think I can sharpen anything now because I finally have the concept. Once you know *what* you're trying to do, there are many successful ways to skin the cat.
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2018-12-11 02:40
It's too bad that you didn't find the videos on YouTube that have been there for years....here are two out of a dozen or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDqzh1LbRWI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0DSjGd_hp8
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2018-12-11 22:10
So I watched the first one. I always ended up with no edge just following directions like those. I needed to understand what I was doing.
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2018-12-12 09:10
So I'll continue on this thread since it's here. I had a couple pieces of shaped cane lying around so I thought I'll see if my now-sharp knife can make a reed.
So....yes. But since I'm basically a beginner again because not having a sharp knife made it impossible to accomplish anything, I have a question. I ended up with a reed that crows ok, two octaves, but....if I peep it on the tip as if I were playing, it has an extremely high pitched squeak and you can imagine what it sounds like in the oboe. If I put my lips farther down than they should be, the sound is better but still shrieky. So I'm wondering if maybe the tip has little cracks in it I can't see, or what. So I'm asking the "what" here. It's still the only reed I've ever made, out of probably 100+ tries, that I actually got to the point of a recognizable double C crow. Input? Yes I know you can't teach reed making over the internet but maybe someone will recognize that shriek/squeak and tell me what's up. It's not resistant and the crow is on pitch. It has a tip, a heart, a back, a spine, and rails. Under the light it looks to be even with itself.
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Author: Hotboy
Date: 2018-12-12 20:00
The scrape could be fine, but it also could be a bad piece of cane...natural products have lots of variability.
Dane
Bay Area, California
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Author: mberkowski
Date: 2018-12-12 23:02
I had a similar thread here a few years back, where reeds felt responsive and balanced, crowed and were playable, but had a terrible shrieking sound.
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=10&i=28189&t=28189
In particular, the advice that helped me most at that time was the suggestion that the tip might have very small uneven zones causing wild oscillations.
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=10&i=28203&t=28189
Michael
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Author: EaubeauHorn
Date: 2018-12-13 20:42
Thanks. My problem is when just blowing the reed; it just has to be something in the tip, a crack I can't see etc. I'm actually happy I got as far as I did on a first try, and am going to go ahead and clip the tip and see if at least I can get rid of that high squeak because then I'll know where it came from. I've always demolished tips so if I demolished this one, no surprise there. Impatience gets me in a lot of trouble just in general.
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