Author: jhoyla
Date: 2008-04-10 07:21
Hello everyone,
I don't have a gouger or know how to gouge, so I rely upon the excellent services of reedmakers for gouged cane.
It seems to me that the thickness of gouge must have an enormous effect on the reed, and that different batches of cane should probably be gouged to different thicknesses, to get the same hardness, vascularity and density of tip material.
The outer bark of cane (the "epidermal layer") is very thin, shiny and brittle, and then comes a very thin almost powdery layer of darker material, the "inner bark". These layers are without discernable graining.
Beneath the bark is the fiber-band and then the inner cortex. Both of these layers are lignified, flexible, and progressively softer and more coarsely-grained as one goes deeper into the cane.
When we scrape a reed, we aim to get the extreme tip as thin as possible. But this is the softest most coarsely-grained part of the cane. Surely if we gouged thinner, the extreme tip would be harder, finer-grained and more resilient?
Does gouging with "thicker sides" mean that the tip material is more consistently grained across the tip, and the corner tip material is of similar structure to that of the center?
Conversely, does gouging with "thinner sides" mean that the edges of the tip are tougher than the center, which will be thicker but more pliable?
I'm just trying to better understand this elusive material, which is simultaneously the source of our unique sound and the cause of our deepest frustrations.
J.
Reference material for Arundo donax cane structure:
http://koppreeds.com/virtues.html
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