and there was much rejoicing…
After 5 attempts, and one cut on the thumb, I finally have a working reed (that I made myself).
The first four died due to cracking or splitting…usually at the final stage of putting on the bridle…a couple during the creation of the slip
Whew…hoo! 
This is a good thing as I was down to my last reed that Ray made..and it was starting to suffer from the change in weather.
-gary
Way to go Gary!!! 
The AUDACITY! The INHUMANITY!! How DARE that cane split at the last possible second!! (ahem…not that I have any experience with that whatsoever!)
Seriously great job Gary!! It’s amazing how simple a device these reeds are, and yet how many stupid little idiosycracies they have ain’t it?! Can we hear a sound sample of at least a scale or something simple soon?
All the best - Happy Holidays and congrats once again!! 
Excellent. Bring it to TN and let us see the results of your efforts.
Good for you Gary! You’ve inspired me to give it a another go.
Hope to see you next Sunday at Glands’.
Rick
Let the tweaking begin!..this morning I felt the new reed was playing a bit hard, so I sanded a slight bit more off the sides/scrape. Playing much better/easier now (boy it doesn’t take much!).but quite a bit flat across the board. Ive got the staple in the chanter about as far as it will go.
Before my tweaking it was spot on A 440, but the second octave E was “scratchy”…I also sealed the sides with some beeswax as it looked like there might be a leak along the edges…that seems to have cured the E.
I think I’ll take my own advice and leave it alone for now…play it in for a while and see what happens.
I’ve got another reed which is not working well, so maybe I’ll start on another with that staple.
Rick, et. al…, I’m looking forward to next weekend. Should be a good time.
Regards,
Gary
Hey Gary,
New reeds do tend to play in a touch on the hard side - or at least that has bene my experience. Seems to be found by others as well however. It’s always a good idea to get a reed playing in fairly well with itself first - even if it’s a bit hard, and then play it in for a few weeks at least before any more sanding/scraping is done. It should soften up and mellow out in tone over that time by a noticeable amount.
Bear in mind that there are a lot of forces acting on the cane of a new reed, and it takes a little bit for the slips to ‘settle in’ to their new life. You can always scrape later if needs be, but you can’t put back what you’ve taken off if you go too far.
Thanks Brian. I’ll keep that in mind…and I’ll try to post some sound clips this week.
-gary
Good morning Gary, how’s that new reed treating ya’?
Top of the mornin’ to ya’ Joseph. It was playing well yesterday evening, except for being about 30cents flat..not a problem for me playing alone, but could be an issue in a group.
The first reed was made from some cane I bought from Tim Britton.
I also made a second reed out of some of your FL cane and got it to the finished ‘crow’ stage..but haven’t tried it in the chanter yet. It was a bit too late last night by then.
I’ll try playing it tonight and give you some feed back.
Regards,
Gary
Cool, I look forward to your report. Have a good day buddy! 