Form the reed, form, form the reed...

There are 3 methods to forming reeds.  They are:

1) The steam method

2) The heated mandrel method

3) THE DO NOTHING METHOD!

In the steam method, you boil water and hold the reed over the steam before placing it on the mandrel and in the do nothing method you simply do nothing and place the reed on the mandrel.  WE used the heated mandrel method which involves using a creme brûlée torch on the mandrel before placing the reed on it.  Make sure the reed is wet if you use this method because otherwise the mandrel will burn the reed and cause it to become unusable.  

The first step is marking the reed on both ends for where to place the wires.

1) Measure 28 mm from the bottom for the collar mark.

2) Measure 26 mm from the bottom of each end of the reed for the first wire. 

3) Measure 18 mm from the bottom for the second wire.

4) Measure 6-7 mm from the bottom for the third wire.  

Next you score the reed.  Using a scoring tool (basically just 8-9 razor blades bolted together) make scratches down from the first wire line to the bottom on both sides.

After scoring, you cut the collar.  Cut into the collar lines already drawn using the razor blade (our weapon of choice).  Make sure it is deep enough to make a solid line, but not so deep that you cut all the way through it.  Then you finish profiling down to the collar lines using the razor blade.  Try not to take off too much or go beyond the collar line (if you made the cut deep enough, it should stop the blade at that point).

Next is WIRE!  Use brass wire (gauge 20-22).  Line up the wire with the first wire line with the wire behind the reed.  Bring the right side of the wire around the reed and then the left side, underneath of the right side.  Then you take pliers and pull, tighten, and twist.  

Wrap some butcher's twine around the reed and wet them both.  You can use pliers to keep this in place during the next step.

The next step is heating the mandrel with the torch. About 30 seconds should be enough.

Once you place the reed on the mandrel, you must mash each side around the mandrel, below the second wire line.  Above the second wire line, only mash the front and back so that the reed goes from round to flat.

 After this, you can remove the butcher's twine and put on the second and third wires, using the same technique as before.  The only difference is with the second wire, which should be opposite the first and third wires with the twisted wires being on the front.

Profiling, Shaping, Your Bassoon Reed's Guide to Personal Fitness

Next we met with Mary to talk about profiling and shaping reeds for the bassoon.

Mary noted that a profiler costs a few thousand dollars, so it makes more sense to buy gouged and profiled cane.  However, we used a profiler anyway to profile our split cane.

First, we placed the reed on the metal rod thingy, centered using the markers.

 Use the brass rings on either end to hold the reed in place.  Place the metal rod into the profiler, making sure that it locks into place.

Make your center and collar lines.  Then you scrape the reed from the collar to the center line using the profiler.  Push down and forward to make the scrape.

Shavings will come off of the reed with each pass through until you are finished.  When no more shavings come off you know you are done.

Make sure to never pull of any shavings, scrape them off with your thumb nail.  Once you have completed the scrape for both sides, you are ready to move on to shaping.

Shaping your reed's voluptuous bod!

In the reed room there are three shapes for basson reeds.  A 13 which is more narrow, a 2, and a 1A which has more flare at the end.   The number is dependent on the flare.  Mary only uses fold over shapers.

First you find the heart of your bassoon reed by holding it up to the light.  Make a small pencil line mark there so you can center the cane on the shaper.  The heart is located where the cane has a slightly greater density.  It will appear like a darker line when you hold the cane up to the light (it is usually, but not always in the center of your cane).  Once you fold over the cane, make sure you push up the fastener to keep it in place.  ALSO!  Make sure to keep your fingers below the fastener to avoid cutting yourself.  Cutting yourself is bad!

We take our weapon of choice, a razor blade, and cut off small strips along the shaper. MAKE SURE THEY ARE SMALL!  SMALLER THAN YOU THINK!  SIZE MATTERS!  Once you have made a few cuts, make a cut back upwards at the bottom, along the edge of the shaper.   This will make sure that you do not cut off too much.  Continue cutting down until the reed is smooth across the metal and the cane.  You can test this with your finger to see if it is done.

Knives, Threads, and Blank Oboe Reeds

Today we made the sharpest knives EVAH!




Danny showed us how to sharpen our oboe reed making knives with the tools he went over during the first day.  First we went over how to use the Diamond Stone.

To use the Diamond Stone, follow these instructions:

1. Wet the stone with a little bit of water 
2. Line up the knife blade's end with one end of the stone
3. Raise the blade to a 30-45 degree angle
4. Slide the blade straight down the stone, moving the blade across diagonally to sharpen the entire blade.
5. Repeat in opposite direction with other side of blade.

Next he showed us how to use crock sticks in the following manner:

1. Slide the blade across one side with the blade facing directly down.
2. Repeat on the other side.
3. For the last stroke, put the blade facing horizontal to complete the sharpening process.

By this point, our knife was plenty sharpened, but Danny was determined to show us the Jende Steel, so we continued on and made our knife sharper than any knife we have ever seen.

Here's how the Jende Steel works:

1. First set up the Jende Steel with the sticks resting on the table (don't push down too hard) at an angle between 45 and 90 degrees.
2. Basically, it is the same process as the crock sticks.

Next we moved on to the mystical process of making blanks.

At this point, Danny turned on loud R&B music.  This was to keep anyone else who may have been spying on us from discovering this mystical secret.

Making a blank is a very specific process.  You never tie any higher than 47 mm.  Also, you make the "v" in your scrape at 66 mm (around 61 mm is the heart).  You should start the windows at about 50 mm.  Try to avoid notches at the ends of scraped areas; to fix this, should it happen, use criss-cross scrapes.  Be sure not to take off too much cane because it gets softer, thinner, overall ickier.

Once you are done, cut off the ears, do a rough scrape and tie it.  Basically, you just coat the thread in wax and then tie the end to a clamp on the table.

Then you wrap the thread around your starting point and go in one direction toward the end of the reed before doubling back.  When you double back, you just make a diagonal wrap rather than going back over the previous area.  Then you wrap up until the 47 mm point and then tie it off.  

This whole part was relatively unclear, but hopefully we can get more instruction later.

El Primer Día... Part Deux

Danny began to go on....and on.... and on... etc about the beginning of oboe reed making.  Basically, he had a lot of information to share with us.  He explained the four types of cane that can be purchased.  Progressively these include: tube cane, split cane, gouged cane, and shaped cane.  After this step you would move on to a blank reed, a first scrape (cut, profiled, shaped and scraped but not done), and a completed reed.  

Next, Danny explained the numerous materials that are involved in forming and creating an oboe reed. He recommends two brands of cane for beginning students, Rigotti and KGE.  If you are looking to buy cane from another source, make sure to check out where the cane is grown.  Danny explained that where there is good wine, there is usually good cane.  He gave us a break down of how much each stage of cane would cost and provided his recommendation, shaped cane.

1. Gouged--2-3 dollars
2. Shaped--4-5 dollars
3. Finished reed--12 (less good) - 20 (more good) dollars

He also recommends purchasing locally made reeds because they are more reliable than factory made reeds. While factory made reeds are less reliable than hand made reeds, you will need some tools and materials.  A good place to purchase these is Mark Chudnow Supplies http://www.mcwoboe.com/.

The supplies you will need include (but are not limited to):

Staples (Not actual staples for a stapler--these are different.  TAKE NOTE!)

     Sierra or Chudnow (Chudnow is reusable but have mixed ratings)

Knives (Not just a table knife--you need a special one)

     Need at least one, some use more than one

     Landwell (decent and cheap) or Jende (good and expensive)

     Use fingernail test to see if it is sharp enough: place blade on fingernail, apply minimal pressure, if 

     blade moves across nail it is not sharp enough! 

  *Bassoon knives do not need to be as sharp as oboe knives*

Stones (Not pebbles you can find in your yard--again, these are different)

     Diamond Stone-used for sharpening knives

          To use: wet stone, keep blade mostly flat and drag across the stone, dry 

Crock Sticks (Has nothing to do with sticks found with crocodiles)

     Takes off less steel than the Diamond Stone

Jende Steel (Sounds like and Kung-fu movie--NINJA!)

     Similar to Crock Sticks

Mandrel (I definitely heard "Man-Drill"--Suddenly I have an image of a half-man, half-drill thing)

     Stick the reed on the end to make holding the reed more comfortable

Thread (YES! This is actually what you think it is!)

     For tying

     Use beeswax to help make the reed tighter

Cutting Stone (No comments here)

     Tiny stone used when cutting the reed

Flat Plaque (What?  Like cavities?)

     Goes between the reed-allows for finer work

First Aid Kit

     BEWARE the razor blade!

PROJECT!

     CREATE YOUR OWN OBOE KIT!

          For all your basic oboe needs!

1. Pencil Box
2. Millimeter stick
3. Mandrel
4. Flat Plaque
5. Razor Blades
6. Stone
7. Staple

Some other notes include:

     Don't finish a reed on a day with odd weather because it will only work on similar days

     Oboe cane soaking is way easier than Bassoon cane soaking

          Just leave it in a tub of warm water for 30-40 minutes

     A good book (e-book) on how to make reeds is Making Reeds, Start to Finish by Nancy King

          https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/making-reeds-start-to-finish/id555727084?mt=11

          Has interactive videos and good instructions

The First Day...Part 1

It was dark and stormy morning...

Well... not really... it was quite cold, but rather nice.

We ventured down to B16 to meet Mary and Danny and to begin our journey.  Upon entering into the room we were greeted with the sight of a table with chairs around it and shelves chock-full of odd looking tools and strange contraptions, which we would later find to be associated with reed making.  

We were welcomed with open arms and warm hello.  After the brief salutations we settled ourselves on opposite ends of the table and got straight to work.  

     First, Mary introduced us to the different types of cane that can be used to make bassoon reeds.  Her favorite brands include Rigotti and Rieger.  She recommends GPS Cane (Gouged, Profiled, and Shaped [NOT Global Positioning Satellite]) for beginning students and for our personal use should we ever need to make a reed.  This is because it saves you the hassle of having to find and purchase the equipment necessary for this process and the time that is necessary for this process.

That being said, she jumped right into showing us how to begin this process with gouged cane.  The first step was to sand the inside of the cane with 20 gril sandpaper, which, according to my notes, is apparently unbuyable.  Or apparently it is just at Home Depot... Who knew?

    Next we took the density of the cane with a very fancy looking machine called the density gauge.  We placed the end of the cane inside the machine, set the dial to 0 and then "PULL THE LEVER KRONK!" "WRONG LEVERRRRRR!  Why do we even HAVE that lever?"..... but really there is only one lever and it does what it is supposed to do so you will be fine.  

We waited for the dial to settle then wrote the number down.  The higher the number the softer the cane is, while naturally the lower the harder.  rinse and repeat with the other side. 

Here pictured, Kathy ponders the sanity of the bloggers while Mary explains the next step: Boil the Cane.  Here is the process:

1) Boil the water in a thing in which you boil water.  (Preferably holy water, but if you can't get any of that, just use tap water).

2) Pour the boiling water into a mason jar.

3) Drop the cane in and seal the jar.

4) Leave them there for at least 5 minutes.

5) Empty the water out and put the cane back into the jar (try to make sure each piece isn't laying right on top of the other pieces because they tend to stick together and it is a hassle and this is a run-on sentence...)

6) Re-seal the jar and leave for at least 1 hour (we accidentally left it for multiple days--but potato potato)

Next we moved on to oboes...

The Reed Room

Aaaaannnnddd....

THIS

Is where the magic happens!

This is our oboe King:

 Danny Holland
     Danny Holland is a third year oboe, music education major at James Madison University.  He has been making his own reeds for three years now with Dr. Kirkdorffer.  <Insert Local Color Here>  Danny is from Spotsylvania, Virginia where he attended Spotsylvania High School.  We are excited to work with him.

This is our Bassoon Goddess:

Mary Szabo

     Mary Szabo is a third year bassoon, music education major at James Madison University.  She has been making reeds with Dr. Barber of JMU for three years and has prior experience with basic reed making in high school.  She is from Fairfax, Virginia where she attended Fairfax High School. <Insert more information on Mary here> We are looking forward to our time with her.

Our Oboe King and Bassoon Goddess at our disposal, we are ready to begin our journey.

The 20% Project

Here was the assignment:
Student(s) will develop, propose, and complete an independent project related to
course objectives. You may work on this project alone or in groups; your peers will assess your 
work during in-class presentations (4/10, 4/15, and 4/17)

We are going to go through the process of how to make a basson and an oboe reed with the hope that at the end we will have two working double reeds. With this basic knowledge we will be better equipped to help repair our students' reeds. Also we will both be able to find quality reeds and potentially be able make them ourselves should they not be readily available. By creating this blog we hope to create an log of our experiences that will serve as a resource for future endeavors, both ours and those of the general public. Enjoy.