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re-tying a reed

Author: jhoyla
Date: 2008-03-06 09:40

Hi everyone,

Having taken to heart a lot of advice about not using leaky reeds, I came up with a way to re-tie an existing reed. First, a quick recap. Reeds may leak for a variety of reasons:

1. the cane was warped to start with
2. the cane is badly shaped (nicks in the side)
3. too much cane was tied onto the staple and the blades "flare"
4. the thread was wrapped over the top of the staple (and the blades "flare")
5. the staple is not centered correctly in the cane - one side gapes
6. the cane is tied at a lateral or rotational angle to the staple
7. the cane is tied too long, and should have been seated "lower down".

This method comes to fix the last three cases - if the cane was warped or badly shaped, throw it away. Unfortunately, cane that has been tied on too short or over the end of the staple is useless also.

Other reasons you may wish to change the staple:

1. the cork has torn away and the reed no longer sits correctly
2. someone gave you a rigoutat and your reeds just slip out :-)
3. you wish to change the staple length to adjust pitch

Anyhow, you've decided to try jhoyla's crazy idea, and you are willing to sacrifice the reed if the experiment doesn't succeed. How is it done?
............................................................

1. Soak the reed all the way to the CORK, for 30 minutes (this makes sure the cane under the thread gets fully soaked as well).
2. Shake out the reed and blow through it to get all the water out. Dry the outside, and wrap the entire scraped portion of the reed carefully with a narrow strip of saran wrap. begin loosely, but wrap again and again tighter each time, until you are sure that the two blades are firmly fixed together and will not slip when you remove the staple. About 10-12 wraps is usually sufficient. Make sure you leave a couple of millimeters of bark showing above the thread!
3. Setup your "reed wrapping station" with all your equipment. Mine consists of waxed thread wrapped on a dowel, the thread anchored to a screw, a vernier caliper set to 47 mm, a new staple, a mandrel and a blade.
3. Carefully, cut the crossover thread at the top of the staple, and unwrap the thread from the reed. Remove the reed, which should be one solid piece of saran-wrapped cane.
4. Take your new staple on the mandrel and place the reed on it in the new position. It will grip well but will try and return to its old position if you let it! Be firm.
5. Wrap carefully, and tie off as usual.
6. remove the saran wrap, and .. voila!
................................................................................

I have started do this as a matter of course for badly tied or leaky blanks (fortunately, I am seeing far fewer of these). The sooner you notice and fix the problem the better, and the less invested. I have tried it successfully with fully carved reeds and it does work!

BTW - even when tying on gouged and shaped cane for the first time, it pays to wrap the cane in the manner described. The closed blades will grip the staple firmly, and will naturally center on the staple both laterally and rotationally. Try it and see!

J.

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