Reedmaking question: What sort of little things do you forgive a reed during the break-in period? That is, during the fine-tuning, what abnormalities do you chalk up to “newness” and not try to fix because it will iron itself out during breaking-in?
I made a very nice reed this morning that’s just a little hard, especially 2ve A (drops without more force than my regular reed would require). I don’t want to scrape or sand it much more.
Thanks-
Dave Jones
Scrape it you know you want to…
If it’s only a bit hard and you’re sure it’s not too open, I would play it for a little longer before scraping. If your eyeballs are bulging out when you play the 2nd 8ve I’d scrape it now.
I just finished off two new reeds. One for my Lynch concert chanter and one for my Lynch narrow bore D. They are both just a bit stiff and sluggish, but other wise in tune.
The main thing at this point is the hard D’s. Almost there, but not quite. Oh…and the high B is sometimes difficult to obtain, much like the A on your reed.
I figure that these problems are something that I will forgive until the reeds are broken in better. Same as you I’m trying to avoid the temptation to scrape too much.
On a related thread Peter Laban was saying that his reeds started out tough but have broken in beautifully. I have had similar experiences with reeds that Kirk sent to me.
Paul
Thanks - I ended up scraping and sanding the back a bit and it works great now – using a rush up the staple to tone it down a bit and tune it nicely for now.
I don’t seem to have problems with D’s that others write about. My consistent problem, probably something in the design, is my 2ve A (not B, though). At a certain point in my fine-tuning process, I always reach this point where everything seems just great, except that I struggle to balance closing the reed to make it quiet as I’d like and opening it enough so that 2ve A doesn’t drop. I can run up to B and B is not a problem, but A drops unless I open the lips up (which then leaves it sounding a bit louder than I’d like, but still in tune). I used to take the approach of scraping the thing until 2ve A cooperated, but I often lost everything else as a result. 
lately, I am improving on this… just not sure how or why… exactly…
I think I’m leaving the slip a little thick when I go to cut in half and shape it.
I make a reed or two each weekend and two weekends in a row I have made fairly pleasant, playable reeds. Milestone!
Thanks for advice – write in if you have solved a problem similar to the one I note above–
Dave Jones
I knew you had it in you… 
Take a look at my free booklet for breaking in new reeds:
http://www.patricksky.com/Files/reedadjust.doc
All the best,
Pat
Thanks Pat Sky - already got it. It’s brilliant.
Dave Jones
Myself as well. Thanks Pat. I study your article often to expand my understanding of this arcane art.
I recall a visit to Geoff Wooff’s workshop where he showed me a reed he had made. He said he got a lot of compliments on it from those he let play his chanter. When asked if he could make one like he told me he said ‘well that one only took me 6 months to make’!
So I took away the lesson: ‘When making a reed don’t be in such a hurry.’ Good advice I think.
So to put djones’ question another way:
How much time do the more experienced reedmakers on the list let a reed play in before making final adjustments?
One of the best reeds I have made … scrape… sand … scrape … sand … sigh of satisfaction … reinserting chanter in cap … too fast!! … your’re going in at the wrong angle! … pull up!!.. pull up !!.. AAAAhhh..
Reed bumped. Reed cracked. Reed dead… Jones swearing…
Such is life. Ashes to ashes …
Better luck next week…
Dave Jones
Quick…take a piece of paper and insert it between the blades.
Take some crazy glue (or similar) and a needle. Cover the needle with crazy glue and precisely place in and around the crack. Hold in place as steadily and accuratey as possible until set. Remove the paper which should have soaked up any excess that may have dripped throught the crack.
This has worked for me!!!
Good luck.
Thanks - am printing out your advice for next time - alas, but I sent it to the bin (saved the staple for the next round…)
I have so much nice cane lying about, I guess I just figured I’d make another one next week without a crack. It was a doozy, especially after I investigated it…
Just for kicks, I used some leftover cane and tried making a GHB reed. It worked quite well!! They’re so small, though, I don’t think I’d spend much time trying to master that.
Thanks for the glue idea - will have on hand for next time…
Dave Jones
… the start of a perfect relationship… in Hades. 
In terms of balance… if a chanter reed is too hard, your drones may go out of tune and often a drone or two can shut off when pushing to hold a second octave. Yes?
That’s been my experience to date. Balance is important, but caution to avoid making a reed too easy to play can result in that reeds very early demise.
I think you shouldn’t forget there I originally said my reed was ‘relatively’ tough and secondly that there’s a difference between a reed that is overall hard and a reed that has a second octave that’s hard to get. There’s a certain relation between pressures needed for each octave in a good reed and the second octave shouldn’t be hugely harder to get than the lower one. No matter if you have a ‘soft’ or a ‘hard’ reed. So if your drones are capable of coping with your lower octave they should be able to handle the pressure for the higher octave as well.
My reeds take well over 6 months to make. They tend not to react to changes in temp and humidity. They start out hard such that other pipers make quips about my chanter being ‘loud’ and then struggle with their own soft breaking back Ds and gurgling auto-cran.
After 6 months of playing and adjusting and the reed is starting to sound its best, they comment on how good this ‘new’ reed is compared to that ‘clanger that you had in a few months back’. '‘Tis one and the same’ I reply.
DavidG