 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2013-05-04 02:16
I've been oiling my 1950s vintage Normandy clarinet with Doctor's Products Bore Doctor since mid-2011. I've always applied the oil the same way: one drop of oil on an old flannel swab, oiling once a day until the wood stops absorbing additional oil.
When I first started using Bore Doctor, the clarinet stopped absorbing oil after three applications. Last year, it took five days of oiling before the wood "topped up". This time around, I've been oiling daily for well over a week and the horn is still soaking up oil...in fact, the oil has been absorbing into the wood in a matter of a couple of hours.
Any ideas as to what's going on here? I'm not really concerned as the instrument is playing better now than ever before, but 9 days of oiling with no end in sight sure seems like a LOT of oil.
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Author: Taras12
Date: 2013-05-04 03:02
I can't speak specifically for clarinets, but since I do woodworking as a hobby, especially wood turning, depending on the viscosity of the oil, penetration to the point of saturation can take a long time. The other thing is that you need to let all the water moisture dry out, which will allow oil to penetrate deeper and therefore reach the point of saturation.
Some clarinet restorers used a "high" pressure technique which bathes the clarinet (after complete strip down) in oil under pressure for a few days. The clarinet is then reassembled and tested. We use a similar process to season and prepare wood for turning and during the turning process to stablize the wood.
Tristan
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Author: jasperbay
Date: 2013-05-04 15:42
This subject is debated at length in older threads in the "Search" archives. Read them with an open mind, and draw your own conclusions, or try experimenting with different oils if you're unhappy with your clarinet playing 'better than ever'!!
Clark G. Sherwood
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2013-05-04 20:26
"One drop" is not really a lot of oil especially when put on to a swab and will only provide a microscopically thin layer over the total area of the bore which will very rapidly be absorbed.
Too much oil is not a good idea but I would use several drops at least when oiling.
I prefer to use a very small pad of cotton attached to a flute rod on my instruments as the pad needs less oil to saturate it and the rod allows control of where the oil is placed.
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Author: Ursa
Date: 2013-05-05 14:19
Day 10 and the Normandy is still taking oil...
Clark...I did search the forum and found nothing about a routine oiling taking so many days to complete. I'm beginning to suspect that a very demanding 2.5-hour rehearsal at mostly-fff dynamics the night before I began oiling might have opened up some fibres in the wood.
Norman...I use about a 5mm drop of oil on the swab and never wash the thing between oilings, so it's getting pretty oily after ten days of fresh oil. There's enough on it now to easily coat the exteriors of both barrels with a single wipe.
I used to use a flute rod, but worried about fouling the pads. Still, an oily patch on a rod is an ideal way to oil barrels--you can really slather it on, and a barrel needs all the oil it can get.
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2013-05-05 17:27
It's not uncommon that with rising temperature the wood can absorb more than before.
Still, a drop on a cloth (however oily it may be) is still just a drop, smeared over a surface of many square inches. In my experience, continuous small-dose applications can do little harm compared to some shock treatments. Wood doesn't like aprupt and sudden changes, but else it's very forgiving and one of the most wonderful materials on earth.
--
Ben
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Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-05-05 20:02
Ursa wrote:
> I'm beginning
> to suspect that a very demanding 2.5-hour rehearsal at
> mostly-fff dynamics the night before I began oiling might have
> opened up some fibres in the wood.
>
Grenadilla is very hard wood.
Karl
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Author: Wes
Date: 2013-05-05 21:25
Years back I oiled a Loree oboe of mine with linseed oil and reassembled it. It simply would not do anything but a very dead sound. After about a week, it came back to life because the linseed oil had dried up. I generally follow the recommendation of Buffet to not oil, but will put a little almond oil on an clarinet or oboe being overhauled.
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2013-05-08 00:54
Some pros and repairmen say a good clarinet that gets played does not need to be oiled in the bore, I agree. I've had my Buffet set for over 40 years, still use my A in the BSO and a newer Selmer Signature Bb for about 5 years, and Buffet Eb clarinet over 50 years and a Selmer Bass about 48 years old. Never oiled the bore of a single one, never had a crack and they all play great. No oil, no problem, ever.
ESP eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: The Doctor ★2017
Date: 2013-05-08 12:24
(Disclaimer, I make and sell a plant derived oil and genuine Grenadilla oil)
I am sure Ed that you got the set of horns that have "will never crack" tattooed somewhere inside them but the rest of us have horns that say "may crack" if subjected to trauma. This trauma may be heat and cold, wetness or dryness, loss of oil from the wood, physical force or something else.
Each piece of wood, and clarinets have different pieces of wood from different trees, has its own set of conditions for drying out or loosing oil. Those in extremely dry environments are often test cases for the maladies of wood drying out. Loss of moisture in the wood my lead to deformation of the tone holes from round to oval and a "deadness" in the sound. Larry Naylor has shown this graphically in several monographs.
The "old wife's tales" about oil not penetrating Grenadilla wood are debunked with modern science showing that certain mixtures of plant derived oils can and do penetrate Grenadilla and that natural Grenadilla oil probably demonstrates this best. Many of the wrong oils, especially clear mineral oil sold as bore oil, will not penetrate Grenadilla wood well and in fact displace some of the natural oil and moisture in the wood surface.
Since Nature designed plant oils to interact with water in the plant world they function to buffer the moisture level in Grenadilla which maintains the physical structure of wood (and cork) and the IMO tonal qualities of the instrument. Natural plant oils buffer the moisture level in wood by gaining and loosing layers of water bound by hydrophilic bonding in which the outer layers are loosely bound and easily taken or replaced but the inner layers of water requiring much more energy to remove.
Many, many technicians and restoration specialists will oil the wood during an overhaul and tell me that it is absolutely essential in restoration of vintage instruments. I am sure that if you took a poll of technicians that there would be those that advocate oiling the wood and those that do not but IME the trend and scientific evidence indicates that oiling instrument wood is prudent and beneficial.
L. Omar Henderson
www.doctorsprod.com
www.chedevillemp.com
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2013-05-08 14:07
I suggest that as a rule of thumb, if you do oil it then nothing bad can come of it and it may help prevent cracking. If you don't oil it, anecdotal evidence says that it may be more likely to crack. You've nothing to lose by poiling.
Tony F.
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