I am trying to make a decent reed and have had a reoccurring problem with my reeds. I can get a reed that is in tune on the top hand but not the bottom. d, e f, and g are not in tune with a, b, c, and D. It is the upper notes that sound better. The lower notes sound a little sharp.
Is this a reed width issue? I decided to make a wider reed to see if that helped. Once I finished the reed it was just slightly wider but did sound a little better.
Thanks for your help
Doug
Push it in.
I wish it was that easy (like I am).
I have pushed it in and pulled it out numerous times (the chanter reed that is 
). I have tried the full length of the reed. It does not bring the two parts together.
I have moved the bridle all over and with no bridle.
I have tried rushes in the reeds and rushes, of various lengths, in the chanter.
Who made your chanter and what key is it in ?
Are you working from measurement provided by your pipemaker or are you using measurements given by a reedmaking guide/manuel?
It is a concert pitch chanter, made by Bruce Childress. The reed that he made, which worked great for about two years, is on the narrow side, in my opinion. About 0.48 inches (12.2 mm).
I was going with this width. My latest was about 0.495 (12.6 mm). I am thinking of making my next at about 0.52 inches (13.2 mm). That seems more normal to me, but I am no pro at this.
P.S. PJ: I just had soup. 
So whats a matter with the Bruce Childress reed, 
it may only need to be cropped to bring it back in pitch, 
or is it damaged. 
I would recommend making reeds in bunches, (thats metric for five, )that way you can play around with them without everthing depending on the one reed.
If the BC reed worked “great” then work to those dimensions. That way you get the pipes playing again. Then experiment with one of the other reeds.
You appear to be trying Research & development with your one reed, thats a lot of pressure.
Good luck.
Les.
If we assume that you are using the maker´s reed dimensions (I mean staple internal volume and reed head with) you should use the same sanding cylinder diameter that the maker uses, Do you know that measurement?
And there´s a lot of side effects in internal reed volume for example : the wider reed head the sharper notes, the narrower reed head the flatter.
There´s a lot of this explanations on David Daye´s page
Thanks Marcelo
I have not taken the reed apart yet. So the measurements that I have are all from what I can gather from the outside. I would like to know the staple dimensions, particularly the eye of the staple.
I did email Bruce Childress about this, but I am sure he gets a flood of emails.
Mostly if the staple is conical or it´s brass tubing, because in that difference you got upper and lower hands in tune between themselves so the further tuning problems with the 8´ve are more manageable.
I agree here. If it is the origianl reed, i doubt very much that there is a problem with it. Pushing it a little further may help..bring the lower hand into tune, so that the staple sits better in the throat.
Daryl