 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-26 18:28
I like the Vandoren Reed Resurfacer: a small piece of what I will presume is etched glass that removes material from a reed. The product comes with a wand of etched glass as well, which I find less use for.
$50 seems a lot for such a small piece of etched glass. Has anyone alternative methods of making, or places for buying something this size, which I suspect glass etchers would consider all but a throw away piece?
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Author: bmcgar ★2017
Date: 2016-05-26 18:45
Find a supplier of stained glass stuff. You can buy an solution that will etch the glass. See http://anythinginstainedglass.com/etching/etch.html
My late wife used to use it. It doesn't etch deeply, though, and even with multiple applications I doubt it will give you a surface rough enough to remove material from a reed, but it's cheap enough, so if might be worth a try.
IMNSHO, though, sandpaper or a very fine file would work just as well. (I don't quite "get" the glass reed surfacer gimmick.)
B.
Post Edited (2016-05-26 19:33)
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2016-05-26 20:07
I like the glass because it fits into my case and doesn't crease like sandpaper, but at home, I use sandpaper because it's bigger and easier to use. Cona vacuum coffee makers also have a glass part that's been etched so it lets water through but not coffee grounds, and those aren't cheap either. They probably need a hefty margin to make it worth their while at all, as I doubt they sell that many of them.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2016-05-26 21:27
I get good results using a nail file made from a translucent resin impregnated with some sort of fine abrasive medium. Readily available at your local pharmacy and small enough to fit into your case. Also can be replaced easily for pocket change.
Tony F.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-05-26 23:22
You do realise 'Cona' is a very, very rude word in Portuguese. I wonder if the makers of said coffee machines were aware it's not a name that travels well.
Commercially etched glass is done with hydrofluoric acid which is very nasty stuff if you get into direct contact with it - it's also a product of some burnt rubber objects, so use gloves if you happen to be stripping out a burnt car engine bay.
It doesn't appear to burn in the usual manner as acids do or can be washed off or neutralised easily should it get onto exposed skin, but it will damage muscle tissue by destroying the myoglobin so muscles will be starved of oxygen judging from a video I've seen that compared the usual suspects (hydrochloric, sulphuric and nitric acids) and also hydrofluoric acid and its effects on red meat.
It can't be contained in glass bottles or vats like other acids due to the fact it will destroy glass, so it's stored in plastic bottles and vats. From what little I know of its long term effects (a popular car repair manual states one cure is amputation of the affected limb), but looking further into it I've seen that patients contaminated with it are given treatment of a high concentrated calcium intravenous infusion to (I hope) remove it from their system.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-26 23:31
Chris...your Cona example reminds me of the lack of international marketing expertise that might have existed when the Chevy Nova (no va being Spanish for "no go" was introduced to countries where Spanish was a major or predominant language.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-05-27 00:27
My dad had a late '70s Chevy Nova back in '82-'83 when we lived in Alberta - dreadful car it was, so I can definitely understand why it was dubbed the 'No-go' as it wasn't exactly the most reliable car we've had. Then on return to the UK in late '83 I saw Vauxhall (also part of GM) had recently launched their 'Nova' which was a small Austin Metro/VW Polo-sized (or 'supermini') hatchback which later became the 'Corsa' (as the Opel version was already called that) and both were popular with boy racers which earnt them a bad reputation. The Nova Belmont was the three box-shape version.
Can glass be etched by being blasted (sand, bead, shot, etc.) so it leaves a rough enough and durable surface to grind reeds on?
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: dorjepismo ★2017
Date: 2016-05-27 02:33
Had no idea at all about "cona," though it does make fantastic coffee and none of my friends speaks Portugese, so this probably won't affect my use of it. Parts of the apparatus do have a vaguely anatomical quality to them, though, now that you've mentioned that. Nonetheless it's odd; the things are British, and British people seem to have a lock on quite a lot of Porto and its most famous export. One might have expected the knowledge to have been transferred at some point. Regarding the Chevy, an astronomer might have expected it to share an important characteristic with the Ford Pinto.
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Author: Mark Charette ★2017
Date: 2016-05-27 04:23
WhitePlainsDave wrote:
> Chris...your Cona example reminds me of the lack of
> international marketing expertise that might have existed when
> the Chevy Nova (no va being Spanish for "no go" was introduced
> to countries where Spanish was a major or predominant language.
Your comment seems to point out that urban myths spread easily and are damn hard to correct. Even the ones that start here end up with a life of their own.
http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-27 05:02
My daughter told me this one as per last year's Spanish teacher: who is not Hispanic.
This year's teacher happens to be. I'll have to find out if his history shows it to be the urban myth it seems to be.
(Your originally from the automobile industry Mark: correct?)
Post Edited (2016-05-27 05:04)
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Author: Mark Charette ★2017
Date: 2016-05-27 06:11
WhitePlainsDave wrote:
> This year's teacher happens to be. I'll have to find out if
> his history shows it to be the urban myth it seems to be.
>
> (Your originally from the automobile industry Mark: correct?)
Not originally and not now, but about 20 years or so in that industry. Live in south Florida part time now and just spent a year living more or less in Miami, which is the equivalent of living in 10 different countries in the Caribbean and South America. My hispanic friends vouch [ man, I mangled that word a few minutes ago - the Bell's Two-hearted Ale was speaking ] for Snopes ... nova and no va are not pronounced at all the same, never mind usage.
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Author: BartHx
Date: 2016-05-27 06:21
It sounds like that belongs in the same category as the claim that the name Coca Cola sounds similar to how a native speaker (one of the Oriental languages, I believe) would say "bite the wax tadpole". The story is that in most Oriental countries that is why it is identified as just Coke.
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Author: Tony F
Date: 2016-05-27 08:14
the tool shown in the above url is exactly the same as the nail file I mentioned earlier.
Tony F.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2016-05-27 10:52
Just a silly question, whats wrong with your standard reed knife or a small sharp pocket knife?
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-05-27 14:44
I don't think using a knife to flatten the underside of a reed is going to work well.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-27 16:19
There's nothing wrong with a reed knife--except maybe bringing it into the passenger cabin of an airplane.
I enjoy the use of a stationary gritty surface while I pass the reed's top, at an an angle, against it (or the bottom of the reed flatly) to make adjustments. By woodworking analogy, if the ATG sanding block is a circular saw (saw moves, workpiece does not) the etched glass is like the table saw (saw (if not blade) stationary, while the workpiece moves).
This is not a dig at ATG, whose contoured work surface is well suited to the reverse contoured reed--just a dig at the longevity of sandpaper versus etched glass.
Post Edited (2016-05-27 16:22)
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Author: Roxann
Date: 2016-05-27 18:28
My current band teacher, who was also my band director back in the 1960's!!! swears by a reed that grows along the banks of the Boise River in downtown Boise. It's called Reed Rush and it has to be dried before it can be used. OR...you can buy it at:
http://www.wwbw.com/LeBlanc-Reed-Rush-540161-i1396618.wwbw
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2016-05-27 19:21
I'm a retired stained glass dsigner-builder-restorationist. Any professional stained glass supply house is likely to have etched glass scraps with various degrees of roughness lying around. (I used to have a boxful, but I recycled it when I retired.) The store will probably be happy to grind down the raw edges so you won't get cut. I'll bet they won't even charge you (since the grinder is sitting right there ready to go and this job would take maybe ten seconds, for somebody who's really slow...).
I don't recommend etching the glass yourself. You'd have to pay more for the acid (and buy way more than you'll ever need) than you'd ever have to pay for the etched glass, and that acid is way, way, way too dangerous for a typical home workshop.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: WhitePlainsDave
Date: 2016-05-28 22:13
Lelia:
Finding such supply houses, which sell the finished product over the materials to do it yourself--as I don't want to do it myself (cost/lack of expertise/chemical danger, etc.) has been harder than I would have hoped it would be.
If you have lead (read: leeeeed, not "lead glass") ideas kindly bring forward their names here or in email.
Thanks.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-05-28 22:27
Is lead glass (that's lead content in the glass as opposed to leaded glass panels) still used in stained glass making?
That's something you won't want to use as a reed resurfacer.
It was said that playing the Armonica or Glass Harmonica (different pitch crystal bowls concentrically mounted on a rotating axle and played with wet fingers) could send people mad. I think tests had shown that was most likely to have been due to the lead content in the crystal used in the bowls which got into the players' system through contact with it and over time caused lead poisoning. Well there's that and other killers used in Victorian era such as arsenic in a deep green dye used in wallpaper and fabrics and lead paint among loads of other hazardous things found in and around the house.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: donald
Date: 2016-05-29 07:33
From 2004....
http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/read.html?f=1&i=151443&t=151443
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Author: donald
Date: 2016-05-29 07:44
Hey Chris P, re using a knife to flatten the back of the reed- this is a technique a few USA based players use but I've never met UK/European clarinettists that use it. You use the straight edge of a knife blade (assuming it's a straight edge) to lightly grade the back of the reed- very good for eliminating the bump that sometimes forms at the step in the window, good for flattening the heel of the reed when it is either concave or convex... not so effective at working on the underside of the reed blade when this is necessary.
There are some drawbacks- if you're not careful a sharp blade can dig in to the surface when you don't want it too, or you can hold either the reed or the knife off centre... this requires care and some technique.
Another application of this is that you can use the straight edge of the knife to help SEE if the back is flat- in darker conditions (pit, or room with the curtains closed) you can gently place the straight edge of the blade across sections of the reed, and by looking at the light coming UNDER the blade you get a visual on the flatness of the reed surface.
I sometimes use the same technique on the CONTOURED side of the reed, to get a visual of the shape/symmetry when adjusting. When teaching others how to adjust reeds, this is the only way to give a good 3D visual of the reed contour (looking at the SHADOW cast by the straight edge shows the shape of the reed "hill")
dn
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2016-05-29 22:56
I've been retired for too long to know where to shop for stained glass supplies any more. Chris P. makes a good point about the unwisdom of using leaded glass for clarinet-sanding. Good question to ask the supplier -- but, in general, people who etch decorative glass for table-wear, lamps and windows don't use lead crystal. In my whole career (lamps, windows, other decorative things and restoration work), I never used lead crystal (for anything) or met anybody who used lead crystal. Art-glass is soda-lime glass.
When stained glass artists use the term, "leaded glass," they're almost always talking about one of two processes. One is the process of putting pieces of glass together into mosaic pictures, by fitting the cut-out pieces of glass into strips of metal came. (Came = strip of flexible metal, such as lead or zinc, with slots down the edges.) The edge of the piece of glass fits into a slot in the edge of the came. Then the artist solders the pieces of came together and putties the window to hold the glass in place. The other process, for smaller, more detailed artwork that doesn't need to take a lot of stress, involves wrapping the edge of each piece of glass in copper foil, laying the foiled glass pieces out on the paper pattern, then decoratively soldering all those edges with either lead solder or lead-free solder.
Because most stained glass studios do make use of lead and/or other stuff you don't want smeared onto your reed (ground glass, for instance!), please do wash the glass thoroughly before using it as a reed-scraper.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2016-05-30 03:48
I've always misheard stained glass makers by thinking they called the extruded lead (or zinc, tin, antimony or similar soft metal or alloy) strips 'cane' - so thanks for putting that right.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2016-05-30 18:04
You're welcome -- and, btw, I always thought it was "cane," too, until I took my first hobby class in stained glass. The hobby got out of control when the teacher asked me to be her apprentice at exactly the time when I'd reached the "Take this job and shove it!" point with investigative legal research in products liability.
One thing I should have mentioned by way of full disclosure: As an amateur musician, I don't pretend to know what surface is "best" for modifying reeds, but I prefer sandpaper followed by a gentle rub on some ordinary typing paper. I find sandpaper easier to buy and easier to use -- and I don't have to worry about breaking it.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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