Author: Chris P
Date: 2014-06-20 16:33
There are straight shape bassoon crooks with a single curve in them instead of the usual S bend. Incidentally, what do Russians call an S bend (Roman S) as they Cyrillic S look like a Roman C?
Cerrobend is the low melting point alloy used to support the tubing while crooks are being bent to shape nowadays - it's at a molten state in boiling water and solid at room temperature so can be safely used for this application. Get a pan of water on the boil, immerse the crooks to heat them up and have a lade of cerrobend in the pan as well. Then fill the crooks with the cerrobend out of the pan (with the ends stopped against a mat) and leave to cool. Then bend them to the required shape, immerse in boiling water and the cerrobend will melt and run out leaving the inside of the crook clean.
When using lead the tubing has to be oiled first so the molten lead doesn't stick to the inside, then the tubing has to be heated up sufficently while pouring the molten lead in to ensure there aren't any air bubbles which will cause a kink when bending, plus ensuring all traces of lead are removed afterwards. Too dangerous due to the molten lead aspect, so best use a safer, less toxic and much lower melting point alloy.
Either way, the crook cork will most likely need to be replaced if it burns or the adhesive fails. Crooks are usually bent before plating, so you may find the plating will crack or craze if you bend them.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
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