Hi all this was posted on the excellent new reedmaking website www.upreeds.com
It may be of use to owners of this type of chanter and fans of the Mc Sherry “sound”
http://www.upreeds.com/content/reed-b-koehler-concert-boxwood-chanter-j-mcsherry
Cheers
I added a separate field for “Posted by” as opposed to “Made by,” in case anyone wants to share pictures or spec’s of reeds that they didn’t personally make.
Interesting. This ended up not looking or being constructed what I understand BK’s reeds to be like.
Still, if it works: it works.
t
These reeds are totally different from BK’s, many reeds will work in a chanter if the chanter is good, Benedict makes excellent ones!
Its worth noting that John plays a Koehler not a Koehler and Quinn
Cheers
As far as I know, a K vs. a K&Q is all on the outside. The bores are the same, or as the same as two chanters can be. Indeed, I use a slightly different staple formula than either for their chanters than they use as well, but it is the same formula for either one’s chanters.
Hi Paddy,
First off, thanks for sharing this info. It’s really useful to be able to listen to a reed setup and then ‘examine’ it in this way.
My chanter isn’t one of Benedict’s but i think it’s not 100 miles away dimensionwise and i’d never had any luck with tube staples - always too short in the octaves - so had been rolling slightly bigger ones and using a head about half inch. Basically using a BK-type construction for a Rowsomey chanter.
Anyway today i gave your dimensions a blast and to my surprise tuning works out fine in my stick. This is great news for me as rolling staples is tedious and i’m lazy. But 2 questions :
Do you do any carving, relief inside your slips before you tie them on?
How thick do your lips end up (on the reed…)
I’m having trouble with back d breaking too easily and i reckon one of these things could be the key.
Cheers
Andy
Hi Andy
Glad the info was useful to you, I always find that 99% of chanters can be reeded with tube steeple. There are a lot of variations in steeple that can be achieved with tube.
You telling me this has made my day 
, i wish i had a pound for everytime I heard the phrase " my chanter CANT be reeded with a tube steeple"
In all of the chanters i’ve come across and made reeds for ( its a lot!!!) there has only been two that could not be fitted with a tube steeple. One was a very obscure D. Spillane chanter and the other a Rowsome from the 1950’s.
I do gouge a tone chamber in all of my reeds from about 32mm to the end of the slip. This may help with the back D. Although i would suggest its more likely that you are scraping to much at the upper third of the reed. Depending on the amount of scrape you have put on the blades, the belt placement could significantly improve a breaking back D and weak C#, however if you find the back D to be sharp and breaking i would conectrate on the refining the scrape in the lower portion of the reed head.
As always you will probably find that it will be a mixture of all three that will solve your problems 
Regarding the thickness of the lips, it will vary greatly depending on what blowing pressure is required. Personally i like to leave the lips as thick as possible as i find it helps the reeds overall stability.
As always its down to personal preference, my preference is to make it work and then worry about how I did it 
While the reed in question was made for John, a reed of this style will work in a majority of chanters with minor adjustments needed in the steeple configuration for fine tuning purposes.
Glad its beginning to work for you, I have found this design too be very successful in many different makers chanters
Patrick: thanks for posting the information about your reed for John M. I would like to encourage other reedmakers to post their reed info as well.
It’s also a place to post information on reeds in progress when someone is looking for advice/assistance on particular problems.
I do agree with Paddy.
For what it’s worth (?), I feel that there is a tonal difference that seems more pronounced in concert chanters when using tubing versus hand rolled staples, then in Flat chanters. My Rogge and Hunter Bs both use tubing, and both are amazing sounding, w/no shortage of tone or colour.
Too, there’s a significant difference (in concert reeds) if you wind at high pressures w/ tubing than with rolled. In that case (w/ tubing), the reed becomes hyper-responsive, almost hi-fi-esque, I don’t like that too much. Conversely, that sorta wrap has worked well for me w. reg. reeds in the past.
Again, those’ve only been my experiences.
100ths of mm can make a difference so miles will make a HUGE difference 
As I said this type of reed will work in a majority of chanters. Depending on the final reed apeture you are aiming for the dimensions i have offered will give a good workable range that will remedy the most commonly encountered anomolies.
Totally agreed i would commonly opt for rolled copper steeple in regulators. The copper gives a slighly mellower tone to the reg. It can help take the “edge” of the “top” reg notes and blend better with set. However to notice this high level of differentiation the beginning reedmaker should concentrate on finding a recipy that will make working reeds for their own pipes. Doing so will help develop an understanding of reed “mechanics” and how this effects tone, tuning, balance and playability. Experimentation can then begin to improve the charcteristics of their own reeds.
Once a solid foundation of reedmaking has been established ( say 3 out of every 5 are really good 
). Changing one variable at a time lets you then see how it has effected the reeds characteristics. By building your knowledge in this way you will find that your reedmaking will continually improve.
Sad thing is though, when that eureka moment does come and you are erupting with joy in your dusty surroundings, you soon realise by learning something you didn’t know you’ve probably disproved something you thought you knew 
Such is the endless struggle of the poor uilleann pipe reedmaker.
well said, Paddy. 