A reedmaking question for those of you that make reeds…
I’m curious to know how others do it?
How do you stop yourself from scraping/sanding the head that wee bit too much and thereby spoiling the reed?
I’m always “guessing” rather than applying any great science to it.
Now I’m guessing that someone out there will have a wonderful tip for me!!
Boyd
First–If you have shaved the reed quite thin, then, when drawing on the reed you get two tones deee DAAA then you are reaching the limit. Second-- now put the reed in the chanter and play the D if you apply a good bit of pressure the reed “breaks” to a lover note then you are very close. Third— if the reed “breaks” with very little pressure, then you have gone to far. Trim the lips of the reed and start over.
Pat Sky
when your thumb starts bleeding
If your success rate is 1 very good reed out of 10 attempts, no need for science, guessing is perfect, IMHO.
Unless you are a pipe or reed maker and you do it for living.
I think that experience plays a big part. I have a box full of failed reeds/reeds I have ruined through experimentation.
I use a method which involves pre-scraping the head before tying onto the staple. Having tied on, I rest the reed blank for as long as possible before beginning sanding and scraping with a reed knife. When I get around to finishing the reed, I generally do the following:
Sand the head until I get a reasonable crow which sounds at a certain pressure (again, experience teaches what a reasonable crow sounds like, ballpark pressure etc).
Try the reed in the chanter. The reed will be hard work at this point, and reaching the highest notes of the upper octave will be tricky.
Sand the reed some more, taking care not to sand away the lips.
Try the reed in the chanter again. Generally, the reed will still be too stiff and loud, and there may be an autocran on the bottom D.
Back to the sandpaper/reedknife. At this stage I rely more on the reedknife and less on the sandpaper. I am looking to remove material from the base of the 'V and the edges of the scrape.
Try the reed in the chanter again. If it seems reasonable at this stage, let the reed rest overnight, before assessing it the next day, and making further adjustments/finishing steps with the knife. I tend to leave the reed a little on the hard side as they generally ease off with playing.
The above steps are not gospel, and different makers will employ slightly different tactics, but they seem to work for me. I guess the golden rules are: ‘learn the geometry/characteristics of reeds which work in your chanter’, and ‘make small adjustments, assess, rest, repeat’. Experience is key though, and theres only one way to gain that.
Cheers,
Steve
Hi Steve
You sound like you do things in a similar way to me, apart from the fact you reduce the slips before tying on the head. You have described some of the later techniques very well.
In the early stages I feel the reed and compare its depth with that of one or two good reeds. This seems to help me get into the zone quicker. Then its the fine tuning stage that I spend time and frequent small steps…
I too use a knife at the later stages and always bear in mind the “W” that Dave Hegarty talks about in his reedmaking book.
Somehow it is always tempting to take extra steps in this final process and then think to myself “why didn’t I just stop last night and just play in the reed??”
I am maybe just lazy in hoping to make a reed that doesnt need hard work to blow it in.
Boyd
Hi Boyd,
Having good reeds to compare your work to is definitely useful, but as you’ll appreciate, copying a good reed is no guarantee of success (as I know from personal experience). I guess this comes from the fact that cane is not a uniform material.
I am sure that every reedmaker has made potentially nice reeds, but ruined them through ‘final tweaks’. I view this as an absolutely essential part of the learning process. I now think that the actual construction of a reed is ‘relatively’ simple…its the tuning/finishing/voicing of a reed that is the real art.
Cheers,
Steve
Remember, if you’ve ruined your reeds by scraping them too thin, don’t throw them away. Save them like Steve does. Then, think of that poor piper in a drier climate that can scape them down even further. He may be able to use them quite nicely…and to think the reed is already 98% done!
Any chance you could record the sounds and post them somewhere?
patsky wrote:
First–If you have shaved the reed quite thin, then, when drawing on the reed you get two tones deee DAAA then you are reaching the limit. Second-- now put the reed in the chanter and play the D if you apply a good bit of pressure the reed “breaks” to a lover note then you are very close.
PJ wrote:Any chance you could record the sounds and post them somewhere?
IIRC, Alan Moller deonstrates this on his video/CD, should you have access to it.
Pwrt
Hi. My name is Paul and I’m a scrapeaholic.
All my early reeds were WAY too over scraped and I really have to watch out for this tendency once the sandpaper and knife come out.
At an impromptu reed workshop in Goderich this year, Paddy Keenan shared that he simply runs the corner of his thumbnail across the blade of the reed near the eye and watches to make sure that the cane is still strong enough to form a good arch. My old reeds would not stand up to this test. The oversanded cane would bend inward when touched with the thumbnail.
May seem simple but it works for me.
I am no expert but have now made several reeds that work quite nicely.
(1) Start to sand the “v” shape with 180gr paper and then move to 220gr as soon as most of the excess material has been removed.
(2) Use a carbide scraper to thin the scrape and remove more of the material.
(3) At this point I tie on a bridle and check for a crow.
(4)If the crow is there but is sharp and tough to blow, continue to scrape very slowly with either the scraper or a straight razor if it is very close.
(5) I continue to scrape until the reeds sounds a G or G# ( open air, not in the pipe) without excessive pressure. At this point the secondary portion of the scrape should be easy to see and adjust.
(6) I then adjust the bridle and try the reed in the chanter.
(7) use the reed troubleshooting guide to improve the reed.
After I start scraping I do not go back to sanding.
If you have lots of cane, just keep scraping until you go to far and then keep that one to compare to the next reed you make.
I made about 6 reeds before I got one that I could play, but leaned quite a lot while doing it.
I have a kilo of cane so I can make a couple hundred mistakes.
Tim