Author: jhoyla
Date: 2012-05-31 14:35
@Ian,
you are correct, but personally I like the fact that my swab is open and loose while being pulled through the instrument. If you pull it through from the reed well it remains in a tight narrow strip and barely touches the sides, especially further down the instrument.
I wrap my weight with one layer of teflon plumbers' tape, and it glides through like a charm. I am VERY careful about knots, but I have a crochet hook in my traveling toolkit, just in case.
My swab-with-a-tail exhibited too much friction going all the way through, so I relegated it to the Cor Anglais top-joint. I have a regular no-tail silk swab that I flatten like a tie, fold once and then corrugate horizontally before wrapping with the cord (a trick learned from Chris, IIRC). This puffs the swab out when I pull through the instrument and makes sure everything gets swabbed.
Turkey feathers absorb nothing. All they can do is spread the moisture around the inside of the instrument, and occasionally moult and sweep debris into difficult-to-reach places.
You can buy pipe-cleaner type swabs for both joints, but I am a little wary of these. If Mr Symer worries about the friction of a silk swab, I am far more concerned about these wire pipe-cleaners!
J.
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