Hello every one. I found this board a few days ago and was happy to see so many pipers exchanging ideas. I have been piping for about 2 1/2 years on a full set by Bruce Childress and whistling for a year or so longer.
My question for any of you is:
Have you ever attempted to make a reed of any natural material but cane or elder? Just wondering if other types of wood could be successuflly used for this.
I know that cane has a strandular property to it and the tighter and more consistent it is the better, at least for basoons and oboes, but I was wondering if a similarly tight graned hard wood (or soft wood) could be used instead.
Hi Scott,
Welcome to C&F!
Alternate reed materials have been discussed many, many times here and a wealth of information can be accessed in the old posts. Near the top of the page is a link to a search engine. Click that and enter elder (for example) and all posts with the word elder will appear in a list.
That should keep you going for a while!
I did look under the search engine for any manner of reed making, which prompted my post.
Seems most of what I was able to find there was information on synthetic matierials like fibracell or yogurt containers and the consistent mention of elder.
I am more specifically interested in other natural materials and rather than run a search for say pine then maple then birch, I though maybe some of you have tried different woods that donāt necessarily grow in a tubular fashion.
I know that Syringa and Elder Berry has been used for drones, as it has a pithy center and interesting grain. I donāt know if itās ever been tried for chanter reeds though. Try thinning the brush down by the creek beds, you might discover something interesting!
I have had good luck with Englemann spruce. It gives a slightly mellower tone than cane but is certainly not dull sounding. I think the tone can probably be described as smooth. The response is quite similar to cane and I never had a problem with getting to the second octave. In general, I found them to be a little more forgiving to changes in humidity. They are however more delicate and prone to breakage - especially the lips. Pieces tend to break off unless great care is taken.
There were a couple articles in The Pipersā Review a few years ago describing some of the basic research that was done and some suggestions on how to make the reeds from spruce and other woods. I think cedar was also tried with some lesser success.
Benedict Koehler made some spruce reeds which were quite good. I have seen one in lancewood. Paddy Keenan spoke of using wooden match boxes as a kid (timber unknown). Snowberry was kind of OK in one experiment I heard of, and I have made OK drone reeds from it. Syringa is too hard for double reeds. Goose feather quills have been used for drone reeds but are too small in diameter to make double reeds, unless heated. Many things have been tried over the years, but good old arundo donax still comes off best IMHO. Elder has its advocates, and many materials will āworkā, but are less than ideal in longevity, tone, weather sensitivity or volume.
I have made a number of elder double reeds years ago, but I found them more weather sensitive than cane.
Gregā¦what density of growth rings were you using. Theyāre usually measure in groups p/inch. Really tight rings, like for the crown on violin tops, might be as much as 20-30 lines per inch. Iām guessing that really coarse grain, like 7-10 rings p/in. would work best. Did you cure it like cane?
Thanks for that info Ted!!
Edit note: maybe youāre placing the grain horizontally?
It was indeed a fairly course grain. I donāt have any in front of me right now, but there was approximately 3mm between each grown ring on the pieces I used.
I tried using pieces with a really tight grain, but found it quite a bit stiffer and the results werenāt quite as good.
The wood I am using is the seconds from a mill making blanks for guitar tops. Everything is quarter sawn (with the grain vertical) and approximately 1/4" thick. I let the wood dry for 2 years before I started making reeds from it. I am not sure how old it was when I got it, but it was pretty dry. My father-in-law uses it for kindling.
Thanks everyone! This is some really good information. I have been doing the āfingernail testā on varius stock I can get my hands on and I think I am going to try a few on some Basswood. Iāll let everyone here know what I come up with.
HOLY COW! Basswood rocks! I got a sheet of this stuff 2āx3"X1/16" (enough to make at least 18 reeds) for $1.99 scraped my slips with a curved x-acto knife to get the outside curve and then sanded the inside on a big chunk of dowell to get the inside curve. I followed the directions that Bruce sends out with his pipes to shape the rest andā¦ BOOM I didnāt even have to re-scrape after fitting the reed to the chanter. It played in tune over the whole range ā cept for the 3rd octave d, but Iāll tweak that after the reed is played in a bit--
The tone is smoother (sweeter maybe?) than my cane reed but just as loud
Not bad results I think for the first time ever making my own reeds.
