Author: huboboe
Date: 2012-04-04 00:12
Back in the day when I was making reeds for a stable of 18 - 20 students as well as my own needs I could crank out a decent student reed in 10 minutes. Haven't been able to do that for a long time, but my procedure is pretty much the same. ( I make American style reeds, by the way.) Like Loree BF51I, I soak my cane in hot tap water for about 10 - 15 minutes then scrape a slope in the small end to let the string wrap off smoothly.
After wrapping the reed, I scrape a shallow U from about where the blend will start to the tip, removing most of the wood that is removed making the tip. Then I let the reed dry overnight without cutting it open. (Student reeds I just keep on chopping...) This allows the cane to get used to the stress of being wrapped around the tube and allows the tip to flatted more easily From here, my reed making varies from the traditional.
I saved and measured my best reeds for a number of years and found they all were very much like each other in architecture and in thickness of various places, so I cut (hee-hee) to the chase and establish a straight line square across the bark at 66 mm. This is the start of the blend into the tip. I then taper that cut square across the tip at the same slope as the center line of the blend will be. I usually do this stage dry as it gives a smoother finish and is less likely to tear off a corner. After the tip becomes so thin is starts to be flexible, I cut the tip open, leaving it long, insert the plaque (I like to use a contoured wooden plaque - it supports the arch of the cane and saves the knife) and continue to thin square across the tip until the slope of the center of the finished reed is achieved.
I then thin down the edges and towards the corners until the blend is finished, which gives a sort of pointy blend until I round it, but my knife never goes down the center of the blend again: that's done.
Now I scrape the back. Starting on one channel or the other, scrape down the midpoint between the spine and the rail until the bark line just touches the 66 mm line at the edge of the reed and crosses it about 3/5 of the width of the reed. Now scrape the other channel until the bark line crosses the 66 mm line at the other edge of the reed and the spine (which was skewed towards the 2nd channel) returns to the center of the blade.
If you put a dial indicator on the spine at 66 mm now, I'll bet you a dollar the thickness is .50 mm, the 'ideal' thickness in the heart.
At this point I'll soak the reed (if it isn't already), cut he tip to 70 mm and crow it.
You may need to thin the back a bit and probably thin and rework the tip a bit, but I didn't find it unusual to have a playable reed at that point.
Here's a few general comments: Don't try to make a finished reed in one session. If you do, it will die in no time. Leave reeds a little on the hard side - balanced and responsive, but hard - and play them in. This is good for the chops and makes for long-lived reeds.
There are 4 quadrants that must be as symmetrical as possible: symmetrical across the spine and symmetrical blade to blade. When finishing your reed look at it end on and squeeze it closed slowly. Does one blade close more quickly than the other? Does the reed close unevenly side to side? Remove wood from the heavy side. Are both tips the same length? If not the reed will chirp. A dial indicator is a really useful tool in pursuing this aim...
Add 'windows' to the back after the main cuts are finished, to free up the back when continuing the long scrape would make the F# and G fall in the upper octave.
Once you have a nearly finished reed you can stand it up on your desktop and bake it with your 75W or 100W desk lamp, dry it out and resoak it 10 minutes later - same as leaving it overnight.
You can get away with working dry if you have a very sharp knife and use light strokes. Like practicing, hurry is a fundamental error...
I don't slip my blades. It closes up the chamber and makes the reed less free blowing. (Take a reed that just doesn't want to blow freely and slip the blades back on top of each other. Does it blow more freely now?) The argument I've heard for slipping them is the edge of one blade sits against the inside of the other, making a better seal. If you use a sharp shaping blade or lightly sand the roughness off of your GSF cane and wrap it carefully, it shouldn't leak.
Stevens Hewitt says, "The first secret of reed making is a sharp knife. The second secret of reed making is a sharp knife."
And JRC, Goodwinds, he also advises, "Always practice on good reeds You cannot educate your palate with bad food."
If you don't have a copy of Hewitt's 'Method for Oboe' you should IMNSHO. It ts the most important book on the approach to practice and performance I've ever seen. David Weber carries it...
'Nuff for now.
Robert Hubbard
WestwindDoubleReed.com
1-888-579-6020
bob@westwinddoublereed.com
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