Recently there was some comment on cane storage (I think it was the mail from Ted that Lorenzo posted?
Can we expound on that?
It’s like this you see…
I have just received a hefty new stock of cane from Medir, and its from the 2002/2003 crop. Regarding the comments about fertilizer grown, quick dried, etc., etc., I’m wondering just how fit the cane is after 2 years at the most and how it changes from there.
So far so good from where I’m sitting, it seems fine as usual, but I want to grade it and put 50% of the good stuff away. (So I can concentrate on making reeds out of crap cane.)
So what’s a good method to look after it and hopefully gain some improvement on the quality of the cane. Ted mentioned plastic bags being preferable to cardboard boxes etc.,
If I store it in as cool and dark place possible is there any tips for airing it occasionally or anything like that.
As I say, the cane is fine, but I note from some of my older stock that has been boxed or exposed to too much sunlight, it’s become well crispy and hard and not at all nice to use and we don’t like wasteage do we?
Please, no tips on smothering it in butter or injecting bull semen into it etc.,
Ted mentioned learning some things from Dan Sullivan about gathering California cane. One thing I recall him saying was that harvesting cane still standing, yet already dead and cured, was best. I’d be interested in how long it had been dead, yet still useable, or if that could be known. Also, if cured cane was best and left standing through the seasons, why would storing it in a climate controlled vault be better. Maybe it’s possible that cured cane still benefits from exposure to weather, at least until it is cut or harvested?
Also, I’m curious if California cane is unique to California climate only, or if it’s special qualities could be duplicated by transplanting it in Spain.
While still a relative beginner with UPs, I have been experimenting with reed making and certainly with harvesting cane over the past two seasons as well as doing a lot of listening.
Ted has stated on this forum is that he stores his cane in plastic as the acid from cardboard boxes will do some damage over time. I seem to recall that he has told me and others at tionols where we have both been in attendance that he harvests the dead cane and stores it away for at least a couple of years to cure.
From my understanding from going out in the southern California canebreaks the past couple of years, the dead cane which you would be harvesting in the winter months is that which grew over the past season. Cane from previous seasons would most likely be extremely weathered, gray and boken down and at the very least, too severely watermarked to be of any use for reedmaking.
This past February, I went out with Michael O’Donovan to Fillmore CA and harvested quite a bit of cane, all of which had grown up over the past spring and summer. In his opinion as an experienced UP reedmaker, this year’s cane was far superior (soft enough) to that of the year before when southern California had the lowest rainfall on record. That year I harvested in four different places and all that cane was extremely hard. Michael found no useable cane that year either. As we have had little rainfall this year, I do not expect a good harvest this winter.
I have been placing my cane in plastic garbage bags and storing it in them. I’m not taking any special precautions other than that. I think it is the sun and moisture which will ruin it, so I’m just keeping it dry and in the dark.
Hope this helps. Also, any corrections from those more knowledgeable are welcomed.
Sorry to stray off the topic but seeing you have just got a delivery from Medir I was wondering is it much of a problem getting cane from them. I just have a few questions. First of all do you have a telephone number and is there somebody there that speaks English. Is there a minimum order? Do they take credit cards? If you are getting cane for D reeds do you need to specify this and if there is anything else I need to know I would be very grateful.
I keep mine in those big popcorn tins that people give me for Christmas (I hate pre-popped corn but love tins, which are probably plated steel, but I don’t have a magnet handy to see), but I leave the lids off.
I still have 2 sticks left from the first batch I ordered 10 years ago.
I ruined a bunch of that batch (4 sticks of it) in a reedmaking frenzy when my best reed gave up the ghost two autums ago, but finally got 3 good reeds out of them. I am pretty sure it was my rushing rather than bad cane as I was trying to hurry them and tying up too tightly the first wrap and as a result, cracking a blade.
I’ve never made a reed, although I’ve watched one being born (sniff… beautiful). I do seem to remember that one thread talked about some cane, quite aged, that had been stored/was part of a roof support system? I think it was a thach roof? Perhaps the Japanese pipers on this forum were talking about it.
I know, annoyingly vague response to a failry precice question, but it’s what I have to give. If I knew how to use the search engine in my brain, I’d bring the info to the fore, but thus far, all I’m getting is 404 messages and the occasional Blue Screen O’ Death.
They do. The instrument maker is likely a shakuhachi maker and a well-seasoned piece of bamboo that over that much time hasn’t split is a perfect source for making shakuhachi.
Alan,
Calif. cane is not native but originally came from Spain. The soft cane I harvest comes from select stands of cane with the right combination of water, soil nutrients and the organisms which partially decompose (cure) it. Only a very small percentage of Calif. cane meets these requirements. The earliest writing on cane came from classical Greece, where they mentioned three years of curing before the cane is fully stable (reeds made from it won’t change much over time). I find this to be good info. I would store the bulk of the cane you got for at least a year before using it. Plastic or metal boxes are good for this. If it fully dry it should not need airing or any special handling. The cane I get does not harden up at about five or so years after cutting, and I am not sure why. It may be the curing process. Bassoon and oboe reed makers I know always make sure to cure the cane they get to three years after it was cut before using, so they order ahead and are always working out of their older material. I don’t think you will improve the quality, only the stability. Medir cane seems to have better and worse years. Kevin Rietmann ordered and got soft cane specifically from them. You can make woking reeds from partially cured cane but run the risk of the reed changing over time as the curing stabilizes. I am wating for some cane from a new source to cure so I can judge its quality. Most of my old sources of soft cane have been wiped out by the Aroundo police. I may be able to get you some older stock to tide you over. PM or e-mail me if you are interested.
Their telephone number is Tel. 34 972 318 119 Fax 34 972 318 917. I had only contact with them by email but in English so there must be somebody in the company that at least can read and write it. I don’t think there’s a minimum and yes they take credit cards. If you want cane for D reeds specify the diameter you want and you’ll get it. But most important specify that the cane is for uilleann pipes and that you want SOFT cane. I ordered 1 kilo for concert pitch and 1 kilo for flat pitch and I received it three weeks after ordering.
It’s good cane the best I ever had and I tried several sources over the years. From their website “Since 1916 we grow and season following the same traditional method. We only purchased wild cane, and don’t use any pesticide or chemical fertilizers.” So no pesticide or chemical fertilizers.
I’m not fully with you there?? Are you saying that 3 year old cured cane may harden after 5 years (to a detriment) and therefore I should make 800 reeds in 2 years ??
Tony,
I don’t think it makes a difference how it lies, though stacking on end may allow you to eye up the piece you want quicker, being able to see the cane diam., shrug
I only have second-hand info. from makers of wet reeds, that the French cane they use gets harder as it gets older. I have cane over 20 years cut, which has not significantly changed in hardness. Cane hardness varies from year to year. I have seen soft cane from Medir from some years, and very hard cane from other years. The cane you got was probably cut green in the winter of 2001/2002, which is 2 1/2 years cured now and may be stabilized at this point.
My email order to Medir was about three sentences long, the order arrived very promptly and was precisely what I wanted for diameter. Hardness, I don’t know, I’m a hack of a reedmaker all the way. It’s a damn sight softer than the Medir I got years back from Nick Whitmer though, which needed grinding down to paper for any results somtimes. I’ve made a couple reeds from Cali cane which was like cardboard, too. My delicate touch wasn’t ready for that either. It’s only in the last year I’ve started to make reeds I’d show to another reedmaker…
Tom Busby told me he and Mike Carney used to get cane from bird cages and wicker baskets from Spain. Y’all may have noticed that a Patsy Brown chanter sold on Ebay a few months back had an original working reed, thus at least 45 years old. Jimmy O’Brien-Moran used to play a reed one of his Colgan chanters that was something like 70 years old if not more. You can hear him play it on the Pipers’ Rock. Wire in the bore and very quiet as a result, but it still worked. Watch what you’re doing and a reed can last a long long time.
Yeah Wicker baskets! and I believe Fruit storage boxes too. The fragrance of mango rising from your knife as you scrape, take a bite and scrape again! Yummmmm.
I think the cane the Greeks used for the Aulos reeds was Phragemites australis. I’ve had some success making double reeds the ancient Greek way in which you get 2 reeds out of each internodel section by scrapping in the middle to remove the silicaceous outer layer and thin the blades.
You then squash it in the middle and cut in half.
This would be no good as a UP reed but I can get a good Bombard reed this way.
