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The more you scrape on the outside the more it weakens the internal structure? That logic just doesn't hold up.

The gouge contributes to the structure of the reed, but the scrape is more important. Why do you think machine-made reeds are so bad? They're gouged just like handmade reeds, but the exterior is botched. Clearly the exterior structure is more important than the interior structure.

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Cooper, no matter how confident you are that a certain gouger is all wrong and can't produce good reeds, I assure you there's an oboist somewhere making good reeds on that gouge.

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Yes, the gouge effects all these things and more. But it doesn't control any of these things. It is just one of many factors.

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I've done some work on gougers in the past, but I no longer do any of that. It doesn't really interest me. I hope you're not implying that one has to build gougers to form an opinion on them, because that would be absurd