I just wondered how long some people have their chanter reeds for. My record was about 3 years. I took to messing about with it and buggered it up.
I read a few have had chanter reeds for quite astonishing lengths of time.
Who holds the record?
I have had my current reed for about six years. I must say that it has only improved with age.
Alas, it has developed a couple of cracks due to my foolishness. I was trying to get it in tune in a VERY dry recording studio during the winter and it suffered a mishap. What was a very small crack at the top is now growing and resulting in a weak C#. I’ve ordered new reeds from Kirk Lynch.
I may try to fix it with some crazy glue but I better have a new one just in case.
Come to think of it I’ve lost all my “good” reeds to mishaps such as getting caught in a rainstorm while moving (soaked reeds), or trying to tune to someone else who was out of tune…then having that person bump my elbow (crushed reed). Once I gave away a very good reed to a friend in Ireland for letting me stay with him and his family (I should have bought him a bottle).
So…I guess what I’m trying to say is I should be more careful in preserving that “magic” reed, cause they just get better with time.
Paul
Liam O’Flynn has some original reeds, including his chanter reed, from Leo Rowsome (d. 1970).
Paddy Moloney had a Leo Rowsome chanter reed in his Rowsome set for 25 years. He played in Toronto one winter weekend with the group and then flew overnight to Dublin and straight to RTE for a television taping. When the studio lights came up, the chanter reed cracked.
According to the Chieftains’ authorized biography (John Glatt, 1997) the reeds cracked as he left the central heating of his hotel into a typical winter night in Toronto 1977, heading to the venue at Massey Hall. Moloney nearly shit. Leo Rowsome had been dead for 17 years.
Moloney confessed he never had time for learning reed-making. Wouldn’t it be nice to have enough reed-makers to hand to be so cavalier about reed-making? 
My first successful reed lasted 1 year before it died. I couldn’t find a cause on it’s autopsy and I never could reproduce that receipe.
The Koehler style was the next successful reed (and I can reproduce them fairly consistently) and it lasted 7 years. Again, I could never determine the cause of failure.
I have two going now that I made this last fall (and a bunch more tied and/or partially finished on the way).
I think the large humidity/temperature changes do something to kill them, but I don’t have enough evidence to back that theory up yet.
I think someone makes Liam O’Flynn’s reeds for him.
I love his reed adjustment method. He takes the reedcap off, examines the reed carefully from all directions, then replaces the reedcap. I think he can hypnotize his reeds in tune..
Yes, he nursed it to Dublin and it died.