Hi all,
I’m interested in what thickness works best for you on your slip edges. I’ve always gone for 0.3mm as the information out there suggests this (I’ve also heard the term "3 sheets of paper thick, whick equates to about 0.3mm). However, I would like to look into dulling the bright tone of my reeds and so am wondering how thick you can go before the reed’s ability to close is compromised. I’ve made a reed blank with a slip thickness of 1.2 in the centre and 0.45 at the edges, and am about to scrape it today. Any suggestions for future reeds or considerations for the scrape would be appreciated.
I was doing the .3mm or more but was having trouble with my reeds being too thick..so I’ve started making them thinner. Now doing about ‘two sheets of paper’ thickness or maybe 1.5.
-gary
Goldy,
I don’t know if thickening the lips will help dull so much as make it harder to blow. I have just knocked together perhaps one of the best reeds I’ve ever made - nice strong back D, all notes in tune, notes that stay in tune when I take my bottom hand off the chanter, good strong, crisp Hard D, and perfect second octave…and whats more - it plays right on 440khz even in the hot humidity of Brisbane.
The funny thing is, one of the lips is about .3mm thick and the other about .5mm thick 
Obviously I didn’t do my gouging carefully enough. The tone is bright and crisp - the way Rowsome-based chanters are designed to be.
By the way - all the tunes I recorded on Clips and Snips DO NOT use this new reed, they were recorded using my temperamental one with bad back D. I’ll put some more up sometime using the new reed.
If you’re wanting to dull the tone, I suggest try a rush up the chanter bore first. I used to use a piece of bamboo which I could carve out bits to fine tune tone holes and it was tapered towards the top to compensate for decreasing internal bore. If you experiment with that you can come up with something that won’t affect the 2nd ocatve too much.
Good luck,
DavidG
The timbre of the tone - ie: bright vs. dull sound is generally affected most by the smoothness of the finish on the inner surfaces of the slips. I tend to like to try and finish my slips off with 2000 grit wed/dry paper that leaves a light glossy sheen, and provides for a nice bright tone. The chanter is still mellow on the notes it needs to be, but over all, quite nice and snappy feel to it. I also finish off to this finer level in the hopes that it may help to stabalize the cane somewhat against wild swings in humidity and temperature by sealing the exposed pith a small amout - naturally, without the need for any of the dips, seals, waxes or romance enhancing oils out there. 
Try leaving a slightly rougher finish on the inner surface of your slips if you’d like a more muted tone, and a smoother finish for a brighter tone. Play with it a bit as you may find a particular finish that appeals to you and your chanter in particular.
If it works like you like…leave it alone! You know, some of the most expensive Italian violins from the 15th C. were uneven…they were hand made. You can set them on their edge and they’ll rock all over the place!
Where’s all the veteran experts? I think we’ve chased them all away! They’re probably horrified at what we think we know!
2000 grit ?? Sounds a bit over the top.
Remember this thread?
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=135511&highlight=&sid=4a8513db1b6573ce8d079fed7f395618#135511
Brendan Ring usually uses 180 grit.
I’m often reminded of this story when I think of reed making advice:
“I have been making reeds now since 1970. I have made thousands: straight tubing, tapered staple, rolled, long, narrow, you name it; and depending on the chanter most types will work.”
"Ben Koehler and I once stood by and watched Eugene Lamb make a reed. His method was to take a tube, anneal it and make it flair. Then he shaved the reed so that the scrape covered only 1/3 of the tip of the reed, like this:
(missing image)
“I turned to Ben and said “If this reed plays then everything I thought I knew about reeds goes out the window” Ben said “I agree”. Well the reed played great and Ben and I slinked out the door.”
“After all of this time, I consider myself a very good reed maker, however I am humbled and still do not truely know what makes reeds tick; both Koehler and Quinn feel the same way.” -Pat Sky
Thanks guys,
I spent my lunchbreak today starting to scrape my reed with the 0.45mm edges and will see how I go. Perhaps it is just enough to eliminate the super-fine sandpaper to mellow out the reed. I’ll go back to the 0.3mm edges if this reed doesn’t work. The bright reed played a little louder than my penny whistle (holding it just with my mouth to play a C while playing a first octave C on the pipes), whereas I’m hoping to obtain something just slightly quieter than the whistle with that haunting tone associated with the pipes, which has only been obtainable so far by closing the reed to where bottom D gurgles and back D goes really flat. Perhaps I should be saving up for a boxwood or ebony chanter to achieve this.
Oh well, best get back to doing a bit of work and see if I can knock-off early to finish this reed.
Goldy.
[quote=“ausdag”]Goldy,
“The funny thing is, one of the lips is about .3mm thick and the other about .5mm thick Obviously I didn’t do my gouging carefully enough.”
I have heard several people talk about how excellent a particular reed is, and then talk about its seemingly counterproductive flaws. Maybe I am spending too much time trying to make them “perfect”.
Dave
Initially, I used this grit as I had some lying around for the plastic models I build from time to time. And after trying a few reeds with a coarser paper, found I liked the “polished” tone of the slips much better. Just seems to play more lively. And it seems (according to the thread you kindly pointed out there - thanks!) that many are of the same persuasion.
Dave, I think you’re on the right track. Just keep plugging away. I’d say try and shoot for perfection as much as possible, but don’t go nuts over it. The closer you can get to making each reed the same, the closer you’ll get to making each reed play the same. Cane will always be something of a variable, but try to keep as many of the ‘induced variables’ to a minimum and you’ll do fine. You already ARE doing fine, just keep on plugging away! 
Thickness at the edge of the slip depends on the outside diameter of the cane stalk, width of slip, and curvature of gouge and/or sanding cylinder, not to mention the target depth at the center of the slip.
However, I would like to look into dulling the bright tone of my reeds and so am wondering how thick you can go before the reed’s ability to close is compromised. I’ve
There may be a flaw in your method causing you to remove too much pith at slip preparation (or srape too much from the bark when getting the reed to play).
Generally, the gouge or sanding cylinder is standardized. Therefore the diameter of the cane stalk must also be standardized. Given all this, you end up with a given slip edge thickness, I find, rather than aiming for one. If you attempt to further tweak into a specific dimension, you may be causing problems.
The type of cane will generally affect the tone as well (in my experience). Some cane is sort of brittle.Pinching a gouge shaving betwwen your fingers gives a sense of the cane’s resiliency. If you are making a bunch of reeds from the same batch, you might try a different source.
The ‘engine’ of tone production is the flopping around of the cane at the lips and scrape.
eric
Undercutting makes a big difference in both the tuning and the tone, as far as I know. Without comparing the undercutting of the holes it would be hard to say how similar two chanters are solely by bell, throat, the distance between them, and placement/diameter of finger holes.
eric
I didn’t mean to suggest that something is wrong with the bore. All I’m saying is that the easiest way to dull the tone of the chanter is with a rush rather than adjusting the reed. Has a number of effects - a) dulls the tone, b) quietens the volume, c) flattens the chanter d) careful carving out of the rush at tone hole places gives ability to fine tune individual notes.
BTW - the fact the D hole on your chanter is 3.5mm lower than the Rowsome is only meaningful if the diameter of the hole and the height of the chimney are the same as well. If the last 2 match the R chanter but the position is lower then you may be able to suspect that to be the cause of your flat D.
Cheers,
DavidG
Hi Goldy,
I find that all my reeds are better if I sand the sides after tying the slips onto the staple. Also when I’ve clipped just a bit too much off the lips I can bring the reed back by sanding them even more. This is a real help in stabilizing a weak back D. This has worked so consistently for me that I now can make reeds for my Howard C# chanter by using a C# staple from Brian and tying on the ordinary Ready Tie slips and sanding them right down to the width which works! Amazing I know, but consistently successful. I used to worry over edges and so on but now I’m prepared to try it and see and another benefit is I don’t get any leaks. Good luck with yours.
Yeah…the more I work on making reeds…the less I know.
-gary
Yeah…the more I work on making reeds…the less I know.
-gary