Holy Reed Grail : the SCRAPE

Uilleann Pipes
1

Hi there,
I had the pleasure yesterday evening to restart my reedmaking quest with the help of a friend (many thanks Roger) … All wen t well until the holy scrape :wink:

We used the O’Dowd thechnique to begin the scrape before cutting the slip appart, then binding, the reed was leaktight and ready for scraping = ready for the crow chase …

Beginning with gentle sandpaper action, then cutter scraping and then … no crow …
Going further and after many sandpaper and knife scraping I began to have a crow … But the overall scrape was already large and long …
The crow sounded “A#, B” instead of “G,G#” …
How should I react to that … make the scrape longer, is it already too late …

So the question is : what should be the way to chase the crow :

would it be something like that :
first make a central scrape thinning the head on the center but not on the sides. then sanding, scraping until the crow begin …

Once the crow is audible … how to interpret is pitch ?
if below G or above … how should I guide the evolution of my scrape (wow, getting metaphysical … l;) ) …

Hope I’m not bothering you with this so recurrent quest :wink:

Have a very nice day,

Cheers,

Nicolas.
http://www.itmib.be.tf

2

Nicolas,

Hi. I’ve been taught that there are 2 crows. 1 which is produced on a swift, strong suck of the staple. This is the one you refer to as being pitched around G#. The other is when you suck gently on a long intake of air and increase the strength of intake until the reed really crows (what I mean is it should produce a really raspy gargly croak compared to the squawk of a swift breath).
I was told that this 2nd type of crow is an indicator of stability particularly with Back D, but it’s trial and error and practice to identify exactly what means what, if actually true.

I usually ignore the pitch of the crow, preferring to get the reed speaking, bridled, and then humping on the bag to check the reed in the chanter and then mostly working on the tip and sides of the V, leaving the heart and bottom til last if necessary. This way, you get the feel of the reeds performance.

Hope this makes a littles sense/use ???

Alan