DRN 125 Spring 2020 Text_Double Reed 75.qxd 30/01/2020 09:14 Page 8 Reeds That Don’t Leak Julian Roberts reveals his personal tips for some critical stages of the reed-making process. As far as I’m concerned making reeds The next critical moment is when you is a total waste of time. I aim to make as form the end of the reed. The aim here few as possible and find that they last is to form as round a tube as possible. several months if alternated with others. The cane must be in a very pliable and There are plenty of guides on how to malleable state. It should have been make reeds and probably lots of better soaked several hours prior to the ideas and methods than mine; however profiling, shaping and construction stage. I’ve managed to make a living playing Now when forming it into a tube, as well First Bassoon in various orchestras for as it being well saturated, I steam it by 42 years, making noises through my own sitting it on the lid of a saucepan full of reeds. Some students I know were having rapidly boiling water, right where the lid trouble with their reeds leaking, so I put has holes for the steam to escape. You this together for them and offer it here in may cut right through the cane as I do, case it’s also useful for you. So this is not or just score it. Whichever method, the a ‘how to make a reed’ article, it is a tube must be persuaded into as round a focus on a few interesting moments of the state as possible. The best tool here is process that may apply whatever methods smooth-jawed parallel pliers, gently you use in the general construction. coaxing all the cane to conform to the shape of the mandrel as you gradually Here marginal overlapping can be seen The cane is bevelled in a taper between push it in. on the left side of the reed the 2nd wire and the end. However, if like me you use a thicker than standard but getting the circle round, without gouge (1.5mm in my case), don’t bevel overlaps or gaps. A tiny gap between the full depth of the cane as you get to fingers of cane is better than an overlap. the end. Half way down will be enough. If any gaps are too big, take the reed down towards the mandrel tip a When the cane is folded over, the millimetre or two and go through the 1st wire is put on. At this moment it is massaging and retightening process again. easy very slightly to misalign the two If there is a gap on one side and not the halves of the reed. Check that they are other, ‘persuade’ and rearrange the fingers sitting directly on top of each other as Coaxing with smooth-jawed pliers of cane around with the pliers. you wrap the wire round them. Check the alignment before you twist the two wire A proper shaper should have left you When satisfied, the 3rd wire is done up ends together and, if it’s out, take that with the right width of cane at the end to tightly. Check again that the tube is all bit of wire off, chuck it and start again. give a circle of the actual diameter that smoothed down on the mandrel up to the It’s as you make the very first bends of the will sit on the crook at the correct 2nd wire. Leave the reed on the mandrel wire that you have to be sure to hold the distance from its end. The tapering for 24 hours minimum to dry out. Ideally cane firmly together, exactly aligned. mandrel normally has a mark showing you have mandrels that detach from their how far it should be pushed in to give handles so you can make more than one this same diameter. Be prepared, reed at a time. however, if your piece of cane fails to conform. What matters is that every bit After 24 hours the wires will be loose on of the tube is sitting properly against the the dried out reed. Now the aim is to mandrel; it is important that you push in make the tube an integral self-supporting the mandrel far enough to make sure circle. Check the circle and tube; it none of the ‘fingers’ of cane are too should be a good circle if you did the squashed together causing marginal previous process just right but at this overlapping. If necessary, push the stage you can still correct or improve it if mandrel beyond the mark to ensure this. necessary. Carefully, without disturbing the blade alignment, retighten the 1st and As you finish forming the tube wrap the 2nd wires sufficiently to hold it all firmly 3rd wire round, pull it tight, then twist up together. Tighten up the the 3rd wire, the slack to lock. With the third wire on, checking it is a circle and tube without take the reed off the mandrel and check gaps, sufficiently to give a snug grip but (while the cane is still pliable) that the not more than that. Where precisely the end looks even. mark on the mandrel comes is not as important as getting this tube just so. Ideally the tube should have formed at the correct point of the taper to give a Now take the reed off the mandrel. If the Checking the alignment – the next bend perfect circle and the end will be where 3rd wire is now loose, the circle is not is the critical one the mark is. What matters is not the mark, sufficiently self-supporting. Put the reed 8 Double Reed News 125 l Spring 2020 DRN 125 Spring 2020 Text_Double Reed 75.qxd 30/01/2020 09:14 Page 9 back on the mandrel and tighten the wire the reed as long as possible: minimum more reason for using the reamer as a little more. Repeat until the wire is snug one day, but a week or month is better, little as possible during the original without the mandrel inside, yet with a or even more. construction. Following these ideas you perfect circle formed without gaps. should hopefully never be in the situation If necessary move the reed slightly down When it is time to use the reed, if it had where there is so little cane left that it the mandrel. Finally, after getting the to be made short of the mark now is the won’t go onto the crook at all, because wire just right, push the mandrel firmly time to ream it so that the end comes to there is no cane left inside the bark to into the reed to wedge it on for the the correct place. It shouldn’t need to be ream out! binding process, so that the cane is reamed to make it into a circle! Reaming compressed equally by the mandrel and should always be done with the reed dry, the binding thread. using a rat tail file to get rid of the last little shreds left by the reamer. If you do I may end up with the reed just short of this process when wet, it is a real bore the mark. All the time I’m trying to trying to get all these loosened fibres out establish the ideal diameter of the tube from between the blades. If the reed end for the actual cane dimension. Every doesn’t go to the mark it will not go piece of cane behaves slightly differently sufficiently far onto the crook, which will as a combined result of the imperfections make the tenor register harder to ‘sing’ of my preceding techniques and the fact properly as it will tend to be flat relative The finished reed, kept on a mandrel that we’re dealing with what was until to the lower registers. However good your until needed recently, and will continue to behave as reed, if you’re flat you will sound just If the reed fully dries out between playing if, a living organism. that: flat, dull and boring. (Though if you sessions, the first two wires become read my previous article for DRN you will actually quite loose, though the binding Now with the reed at its optimum know it is vital that the bassoon is never holds it together. To play on, the reed position on the mandrel, regardless of the sharp, and that a major third should be must be wet, and that means the whole mark, I bind the reed. After filing a little played slightly below pitch when it’s in reed, not just the blades. The wires nick each side on the tube to give the the middle of a chord.) become snug again as the wet cane thread a place to grip, I ‘paint’ it with a swells. A proper airtight seal around the generous layer of proper Evostik (only The reed must be reamed so that it is crook is needed and wet cane is better obtainable from hardware stores) from the not short of the mark on the mandrel. than dry. If after all this trouble you still 2nd wire to the end, particularly ensuring The aim here has been to make it have any leak, beeswax can be used, it gets into what remains of the crevices unnecessary to lose cane using the but I have had almost no experience where the two halves meet.