 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: jhkim
Date: 2013-12-03 20:35
Has anyone found any reed rush growing in the Toronto area? If anyone has please let me know! Thanks in advance
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Author: Caroline Smale
Date: 2013-12-03 23:08
Hi, would like to know if it grows anywhere in UK too.
The only stuff I can buy over here is a tiny Leblanc box with about 8 pieces total length approx 20" and cost £5 or $8 !!
That's some pricey plant stem.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-12-03 23:45
Equisetum hyemale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum_hyemale, known as Dutch Rush, [Rough] Horsetail Rush or Scouring Rush, grows in damp (not dampened ) sandy soil, presumably in the Netherlands. It takes up silica, which protects it from being eaten by browsers and exposes it to the collection habits of reed players. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Microscopic_view_of_Equisetum_in_Japan_one_20thmm_graduation.jpg.
It grows all over the place in Michigan, particularly at Interlochen, where I collected armloads of it for free. The variety there may be Equisetum laevigatum, a/k/a Smooth Horsetail Rush http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum_laevigatum, but whatever it is, it works. Anyone at IAC or NMC can send you as much as you need. When you store or ship fresh rush, press it between sheets of newspaper to dry. If you wrap it in plastic, it will rot.
Strangely, there's a planting of it on the High Line in NYC.
The rush at Interlochen is a very fine abrasive, usable (at least by me) only for final polishing. I stopped using it when I got beyond the beginner stage with a reed knife. When I need to do final polishing, I use a strip of 1000-grit black sandpaper over my fingertip. The more worn it gets, the better.
Every commercial box of rush I've ever bought has been dried out and immediately crumbled to dust.
Ken Shaw
Post Edited (2013-12-03 23:45)
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Author: MSK
Date: 2013-12-04 00:24
I'm not Canadian, but vacation in Haliburton, ON every year. I've seen Equisetum growing in a number of boggy & marshy areas that I canoe and hike to - none of which are accessible in winter. Do you have any outdoorsy friends that go to Haliburton or Muskoka? Of course they would have to harvest outside of the park.
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Author: kdk
Date: 2013-12-04 02:11
I grew it in a container in our back yard in suburban Philadelphia one summer. At the end of the summer I tried planting it in an area away from our gardens because I had heard that it can be invasive and can quickly get out of control and near a running stream because a lot of what I've seen growing wild has been near water. The plants didn't survive the winter - probably didn't have time to grow a strong enough root system in the ground. But that one summer's growth in the pot netted me enough rush to last probably the rest of my playing life.
I don't know anything about where it might grow in Toronto, but I doubt if climate is an issue - I know someone in upstate New York who harvests local wild rush by the ton.
Karl
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Author: clariniano
Date: 2013-12-04 02:35
I heard it grows in the area known in High Park in the park just south of the subway station there, but I haven't seen it in the times I visited there when my husband lived there when I first met him.
Please check out my website at: http://donmillsmusicstudio.weebly.com and my blog at: http://clariniano.wordpress.com
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Author: cyclopathic
Date: 2013-12-04 03:18
check flee-bay.. just got a set of 10 shipped from Japan for $2.10 (or €1,54 for euros) YMMV
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Author: jhkim
Date: 2013-12-04 23:18
Thanks for the info!
I heard it grows in the Toronto Botanical Garden too, but you are not allowed to pick any plants, so I'll try looking at High Park
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Author: Wes
Date: 2013-12-05 05:43
The equisetum that I've grown in southern California has not been useful for reed scraping as it collapses on using it. Yesterday, I picked some from the planter outside the Fries electronics store, but that was also not useable.
#350 silicon carbide abrasive paper does a good job in sanding down clarinet reeds for me. It is available at tool and hardware stores.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2013-12-07 11:29
jhim -
Hear what? If you're asking about Keith Stein and Interlochen rush, he showed me how he used it during my lessons in 1958 and in his book. I found the rush growing wild all over the campus and down by the lakes. ("Interlochen" means "between lakes" in German.)
Ken Shaw
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Author: jhkim
Date: 2013-12-07 14:31
Oops I meant to quote the post by clariniano. I was wondering where she heard about the reed rush growing in High Park
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Author: MichaelW
Date: 2013-12-07 16:50
I suppose "Interlochen"was named after the Swiss town of Interlaken which lies between lakes, in Latin: "inter lacus". Maybe that was mixed with the Scottish- Gaelic "loch".
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Author: clariniano
Date: 2013-12-13 01:14
Sorry for the late reply, don't remember my source when I think I heard about reed rush in High Park, I think it was a bassoonist I played with in a woodwind quintet in the late 1990s, but I don't exactly remember.
Please check out my website at: http://donmillsmusicstudio.weebly.com and my blog at: http://clariniano.wordpress.com
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2013-12-13 02:52
Horsetail is hardy and will survive most winters. You can order a pot of 10 to 15 horsetail plants for about $10.00 plus postage from the Houston Bamboo Co. on Internet. Search under "Patio, Lawn, and Garden" for Live Equistum Horsetail Plants. You can prevent them from spreading either by confining them to a container or driving border wedges used by bamboo growers in the soil around them. In the Deep South, New Orleans, for example, you can cut all the rush you want just by following the railroad tracks.
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