Here’s a little case-study for my fellow novice reedmakers:
Last night I was contemplating a reed I’d made and nearly given up on, months ago. It wouldn’t close fully along the sides: even after I’d untied it and sanded the blades flatter, both side-edges still showed visible gaps.
But then I remembered something Dave Hegarty showed me in a class last year: nail polish can help reeds that leak along the sides. So I did the following:
fitted a Rogge-style wire bridle, i.e., 4-6 wraps of fine-gauge copper wire (just 4 wraps this time, since the reed aperture at the actual business-end wasn’t very wide). A standard metal-strip bridle might have worked just as well, but I figured that the wire bridle’s greater surface-area coverage would help the side-gap issue more, without putting so much pressure on the middle of the blades
applied nail polish to the side-edges above & below the bridle
slid the bridle up so I could also dab nail polish to the parts of the side-edges it had been covering
slid the bridle back down where it had been
allowed the nail polish to dry for a few minutes
After only minor adjustment of the bridle position, the reed worked great, except for C-natural. After I’d widened the point of the scrape’s “V” out to more of a “U”, C-natural came in nicely (this is the fourth reed for which this trick has worked – I’m never making a reed with a V-shaped scrape again!). The reed is now a keeper!
Besides the technical tricks, what I’ve taken away from all my reed-futzing over the past week (in which I’ve gotten five reeds working that I’d temporarily given up on months ago) is that one should never give up too easily on any reed that can, at any point in its life, play a scale up both octaves with a decent tone. Most other problems can be fixed, if you’re patient and know enough tricks!
The thread title sounds like a good name for a new tune.
And it would be a fitting tribute to the man who did most to codify the reedmaking knowledge of the Dan O’Dowd/Matt Kiernan generation and pass it on in a written form which allowed it to be disseminated, engaged with and built upon by a far wider community.
I think I see your point: dried wood glue is probably more pliable in humid air than in dry air, meaning it could exacerbate or otherwise complicate seasonal fluctuations in the reed’s behavior. Said fluctuations make the lives of us upper-Midwesterners plenty weird enough already.
Nail polish’s effect on the reed should, in contrast, be more or less constant.
Nail polish’s effect on the reed should, in contrast, be more or less constant.
'til it cracks (the nail polish that is)
but take this with a grain of salt for I play oboe and whistles
A famous player teacher’s comment about leaky oboe reeds:
“Having a leaky reed in your reed case is like storing TNT in your basement…”
I learned the best solution to a leaky reed was to smash it into a hard object before it wasted any more of my time. Then start working on a new one - practice makes perfect, and oboists* sure get practice making reeds!
*at least oboists who make reeds do - those who don’t are not fully fledged oboists, give them time!
…yup… I just used the super glue gel trick, and it worked very well (when the wax didn’t). Sometimes, the wax suffices, other times the gel does well. Some people worry about will the gel/wax be “flexible” enough and not crack. IMO, the material it’s gluing doesn’t move enough (in normal circumstances) to make a difference. If the cane does move alot, well..then perhaps nothing wouldn’ve prevented leaking!?
Anyhow, I humbly recommend keeping a bar of Ted’s wax and a wee tube of the super glue gel on hand. If none work in a relatively quick time, do yourself a huge favour and bin the reed. You can always make another reed, and if you can’t…someone else can. I believe good reeds are not a rarity, you just have to find one!
