After cutting the elder twigs from the bush you produce tubes ready for storage by removing the bark and scraping out the pith. During the drying they shrink quite a bit. What outer and inner diameter before the drying is advisable for what drone?
Hans
I suggest you don’t try to get so precise. Make a large stock of various sizes, allow them to all dry and cure, then try making some sample reeds. You will soon know what sizes you need by trial and error. Your question does not include what make or pitch of drones you want to reed. Following my suggestion, you should be able to reed almost anything.
RONAN Browne has a great video up on his on how to make a elder reed
Ahem! On his…?
Did a google search, but found nothing. Can you add a URL please?
I’ve just harvested a few shoots of forsythia, which seems promising. The pith seems to be absorbed into the walls as the shoot grows, so that at the thicknesses that look useful for drone-reed making, the walls are already hollow, clean and woody. Only snag is that the gaps between nodes are small. I’ve reamed a few of these out without difficulty with just a hand-held drill bit, and hope within the next few days to find time to cut tongues etc. The tubes are all still quite moist, I don’t know if it’s wise to try Morten’s dry-roasted peanut approach.
In any event only experience will tell if forsythia is a useful suburban middle-class alternative to elder. If I have any success I’ll report back.
PS I did also harvest a few bits of elder, but forgot to apologise to the tree 
, so they’re all twisted and bitter, and the straight bits are only long enough to make tenor reeds.
Is he listening to himself on the CD? What gall.
Hard to watch, I kept waiting for him to open a vein. Making reeds with the Ripper, or Sweeney Todd.
This is a handy bit of tip for rushes:
I often use single core insulated electrical wire with some of the insulation removed and the rest cut into small sections which I can move up and down. If the insulation doesn’t slide easily, I add a little Teflon grease.
Quote:
I often use single core insulated electrical wire with some of the insulation removed and the rest cut into small sections which I can move up and down. If the insulation doesn’t slide easily, I add a little Teflon grease.
This is the more hi-tech approach to the traditional use of Indian Cane or Reed. Over here it used to be called “Float Cane” which you got from the local Angling shop. It seems to have disappeared, which is mysterious, because the “rushes” I have seen in Sialkot pipes are usually huge chunks of Arundo!
Another question: What storage-time for prepared elder-dronetubes (“disbarked & dispithed”) is advisable?
I don’t take the pith out until the reed is made. Elder is not as strong as cane and leaving the pith in gives a bit of extra structural strength when cutting the tongue.
If anyone knows where to get a sarcastic drill could they let me know . . . I need to take the pith out of some elder.
Sorry, thought I’d get in before Rory did!
I don’t take the pith out until the reed is made. Elder is not as strong as cane and leaving the pith in gives a bit of extra structural strength when cutting the tongue
Yes, I’ve also done this, though it helps to wrap some thread around to keep the toungue in the right place whilst taking the pith. I’m not sure if it helped me get better reeds - a lot is down to looking for elder with a big enough wall thickness - it really varies. The really quick grown stuff that can be crushed between finger and thumb is too flimsy.
Some pieces of elder will give the tongue shape that Ronan is on about just by levering as one would a cane reed, but you’d have to throw a lot away that went the other way . . .
Debarked and depithed elder takes hardly any time to dry out to usable. A couple of days in a shirt pocket works well. I haven’t noticed any benefit in the long term to leaving it a long time, though some of ours is years old.