OBOE REEDMAKING

BINDING

1. MEASURING

Place piece of dry gouged, shaped, and folded cane on staple. Using an overall length of 71 mm, place pencil mark on cane at end of staple. (If using profiled cane, the overall length should be 70 1/2 mm).

Soak cane in very warm water until pliable - 25 to 30 minutes.

Using two or three half hitches, tie nylon string securely to a hook.

Place staple on mandrel being careful to align the wide measurement of the oval end of the staple with the corresponding part of the mandrel.

Line up the-cane on the staple. Begin wrap two turns in back of the end of the staple.

Wrap away from the cork, checking to see that the sides are meeting equally. If not, slacken the string tension and slightly shift the cane on the staple until the sides are closing equally. After reaching the end of the staple, cross over binding and wrap back toward cork. At the end of the binding, secure with a half hitch knot, being careful not to slacken the tension of the binding. Cut the string attached to the hook and tie two more half hitches. Measure the reed blank to be sure that the binding does not go past the end of the staple. If it does, the reed will not respond properly.
 

1. SCRAPING

Start scraping 3 mm up from binding. Scrape off bark from reed. Be careful to leave a very narrow but well defined spine. Be sure to leave a small amount of bark along sides of reed. This helps to support tip opening and to prevent leaking. Next make a mark at 66 mm and begin scraping the tip. From here to the end of the reed, remove the bark from the sides. The entire tip must be quite thin, but the sides of the tip are somewhat thinner than the middle. There is also a slight spine in the tip,but it can only be seen by holding the reed up to the light. Note that while the tip is quite well defined at 66 mm, there is some blending aswell. Be sure to keep reed moist throughout the process.

2. CUTOFF

Cut off 1/2 mm from tip using knife and billot.

3. FINISHING SCRAPE

Insert plaque and finish scraping tip. Test crow. If above the note C, scrape more from back until crow reaches C. If crow is lower than C, clip small amount from tip until crow is up to pitch. After crow is at C, make marks at 62 mm with knife and make 2 or 3 scrapes in each window of back. Reed should now only need final adjustments, finishing cutoff, and sealing.

4. FINISHING CUTOFF

Using knife and billot, clip 1/2 mm more from reed as needed for pitch and tone quality.

5.

Use fishskin if necessary. Apply cement, lacquer, or clear fingernail polish.

FINAL REED ADJUSTMENTS

Before making any adjustments, be sure that the reed is moist. Also, always insert plaque before scraping reed.

1. Reed Too Hard To Blow.

If the reed crows no higher than the note C, remove cane carefully from the corners of the tip, and if needed, from the window areas of the back. If the crow is higher than the note C, remove cane lightly from all areas.