That’s interesting. Benedict’s blade width seems to be much narrower than I have been using, and the staple seems much longer.
What is the advantage of making a reed this way?
Thanks for the info.
At the last reed making school I attended in Elkins, WV, Benedict was using 0.515" wide slips for the “Generic Rowsome” chanters.
http://www.hartdd.com/reed/get.asp
Liam O’Flynn’s reed dimensions, among others.
Odd, since on the NPU DVD he recommends is 12.0 - 12.32 (i.e. 0.475" to 0.485"). Was the 0.515" suggestion intended for use with one of his rolled 0.55"/0.60" staples, or was this something he suggested for use with tube staples, for those who didn’t roll them?
0.515" is over 13mm, much wider than anything I’ve seen Benedict use… all my notes from Benedict’s classes specify widths in the 12/12.3mm range. The 12mm slip should give a finished width of around 12.3mm.
Bill
This is 2007 and my class was in 1996, so he has changed his method in the last 11 years. I may change my method, who knows?
Here are the notes I took at the Irish week at Elkins, WV in 1996.
Staple - rolled copper 0.020" thick
length - 2 1/8"
top ID - 0.150"
bottom ID - 0.183"
eye - 0.062"
Squish length - 7/8"
Slip length - 4 1/2"
Width - 0.515"
Sanding cylinder diameter - 2 3/4"
Tail - tapered and outside bark chamfered for smooth binding
Staple inserted 7/8" into reed head
Many different receipes can work, I have found (and seen). I have two reeds for my Gallagher C chanter, one made by Dickie Deegan in 1992 and another made by a friend of mine last year and they are very different, my friend’s reed uses a broad, short reed head and staple and the Deegan reed uses a tall, skinny staple and head. The tuning of both are nearly the same but the Deegan reed jumps octaves easier.
Just don’t anger the good folk while reed making! 
When I can gain some strength and get my mind into reed making mode again, I am going to try his new receipe as shown in “The Heart of the Instrunent” video.
I’ll say!
He doesn’t use sanding cylinders at all anymore, for instance - he uses scrapers to shape the inside of the slip.
.515" for the width is what David Quinn recommends in Pipers’ Despair for his Rowsome pattern chanter. I was surprised by it too, but not that much. I had just read the bit about some wide heads and slender staples.
What is Benedict’s slip length for the narrower approach?
That’s actually not easy to answer because his method is so different from others… He starts off with some rather-unspecified length over 4.5" and then cuts away a large part of the end length.
I think that in the finished reed the length of the blades, including the tails, is somewhere between about 57mm and 60mm - at least, that’s what I end up with when making 86mm long reeds more-or-less to his pattern.
(I start with 60mm blades and then trim them after assembly)
bill I’ll 2nd that. Dave Quinn gave me those widths when I was reeding Eamonn Dillon’s Q&K chanter
Keep in mind that the list of owners is likely incomplete as there are some owners of Rowsome pipes who don’t want to be listed. I suspect a combination of “I don’t want to be a target for thieves” and “I don’t want some nubber constantly asking me if I’ll sell my set.”
Is it then generally agreed ,that makers dont have a particular sound to their pipes ,as I suppose the player sets up the reed his own way to give the tone he wants !!!
So to give the term “sound” to anyone it would be to the individual player of the pipes as in “The Moloney sound” or “The O,Flynn sound” or “the Keenan sound”
Could it be said that a good set of pipes actually lets a good piper mould the sound of his pipes to his sound ??
RORY
Is it then generally agreed ,that makers dont have a particular sound to their pipes ,as I suppose the player sets up the reed his own way to give the tone he wants !!!
Rory,
thats a fair assesment. I’m sure there are general exceptions. When I think of the Rowsome sound I think of the the bright and light sound that Leo got as well as Sean Seery, Mick Touhey but then they all played at A=453 those very same chanters will sound very different when forced in to A=440.
But your still right. The 3 you mentioned, Keenan, O’Flynn and Moloney have made many recordings playing various different sets and each player is still very recognisable because of their unique styles.
Could it be said that a good set of pipes actually lets a good piper mould the sound of his pipes to his sound ??
Yes.
The pipes should not inhibit any of you stylistic abilities. I would approach playing a flat set in a diffrent manner to playing a concert pitched set but thats a different days chat.
Tommy
There’s an interview with Liam O’Flynn in which he mentions that he once got Seamus Ennis to play his (O’Flynn’s) pipes. According to LOF, despite the different pipes he still could hear the definitive Ennis tone.
All this is very true cause every piper develops his individual pressure for each tone - his “individual hand” so to say (or rather “individual elbow”).
There is but another thing: Years ago I had to reed this Leo Rowsome - chanter. No information was available and the internet didn´t exist yet. What you do then is trial and error and my first step was to try as many reeds by different makers into the chanter as I got. Now - I inserted a reed by A and the chanter sounded like A. Next I inserted a reed by B into the chanter and it sounded like B. And so on (I only got as far as G and not as Z). Of course, all these “old reeds” had some particular performance and tuning flaws but nonetheless the sound could clearly be identified.
On an other thread there was agreement that the reed and the piper are most influential on the sound and not so much the “stick”. I read that Keenan plays his own reeds but O´Flynn not and I don´t know about Moloney. To identify “The Rowsome Sound” however you would need a (even better several) Leo Rowsome reed(s) with Leo Rowsome chanter(s) “around” them (which I think except from one or two examples is impossible nowadays). So, all we can do today is “reconstruct” the sound and on an other thread we recently read how problematical and misleading recordings can be.
Another example: What is “The Coyne Sond”? Is it Ennis´ sound or o Flynn´s sound - different pipers, different “setups”. BTW, are the reeds different, too?
Cheers,
Hans