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.