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Firstly you will need to gather some specialist items as set-out below, some of which vary a little from the norm. I thoroughly recommend them for a successful foray into reed-making.
Essential Items
1. Knives.
I have three - sharp, sharper and sharpest! I use an inexpensive Pisoni for scraping off the bark and general rough scraping, a Graf knife for the major scraping and a Stanley knife blade, either fitted into a Stanley knife or on its own, for the most precise scraping and finishing touches.
2. Convex Plaque.
This supports the heart of the reed while scraping , helping to avoid too much cane being removed from this important area. I prefer the nice, shiny silver ones to wood.
3. Clippers.
Small, sharp wire cutters for cutting off the tip. These are so much easier to use than the ubiquitous cutting block. I bought my Bahco clippers from a good hardware shop 25 years ago and thousands of reeds later they are still going strong - a good investment I think! Expect to pay upwards of £50.
4. Brass Picture Wire.
This is available from most DIY shops and is exactly the right thickness for oboe reeds when used as individual strands (comes as a coil of five strands wrapped around a central, thicker wire which should be discarded). Usually, wire which is actually supposed to be ‘oboe’ wire and comes in reed-making kits is much too thick.
5. Pliers.
Small, pointed-nose pliers are best and are used to attach the wire neatly.
6. Brown Goldbeaters’ skin
to put an end to any slight leaks in the finished reed. In fact, if you have shaped and wired the reed to perfection it should not leak, but if it does, brown Goldbeaters’ skin is the best solution. This is very difficult to find these days, so you may have to make do with clear Goldbeaters, available in specialist oboe shops. Never, never use cling film. It is a real reed-wrecker, as it is not porous and does not allow the reed to dry out properly after playing.
When you are ready to begin, you will also need these:
7. Perfectly tied-on reed-blank at 73mm, re. Parts 1 and 2 of this series in DRN Magazine.
As discussed previously, you may wish to tie on slightly longer or shorter to take into account sharpness or flatness of your general set-up, when you are more experienced at reed-making.
8. Cup of water to keep the reed moist at all times during the scraping process.
9. Some relaxing background music.
Scraping Method
1. Wet the reed-blank by soaking it in cold or tepid water for five or so minutes. Score a U-shape 10.5mm down from the top of the reed with a sharp knife and then slightly scrape off the bark (shiny cane) above the scored line. Use a wrist action when you scrape and keep the knife moving at all times, to avoid making small nicks. If you find the scraping action difficult, keep practising on old reeds until you have more control (incidentally, you may prefer to carry out this step at the end of the tying-on process - I do).
2. Carefully scrape 1.5 to 2mm down from the tip of the reed, lengthening a little at the corners to make a crescent shape.
3. Keep thinning the tip very carefully until it opens by itself. Cut off 0.5 to 1mm with the clippers, lining them up first and making sure you cut off the tip straight. Then, insert the plaque and scrape the extreme tip again, until it is very thin.
4. Scrape up each of the four sides one by one, approximately 2.5mm in. Scrape exactly the same amount off each side in turn with a wrist action. Do not touch the middle spine of the reed at all. After you have carefully thinned each of the sides, try squawking the reed. It should be making a sound by now. If not, go over the tips and sides again with the knife, still avoiding the middle.
5. Wire the reed. Cut off about a reed-length’s worth of a strand of the brass picture wire. Place it behind the reed, about 3mm up from the binding thread, so that one third is to the left and two thirds are to the right. From this position wind the wire around the reed twice, then twist it at the front of the reed with the pliers until it is tight. Then, push the wire a little further up the reed with the pointed ends of the pillars and tighten the wire again. Twist the end of the wire downwards, towards the thread and cut off the wire level with the thread. Don’t leave the excess wire on the carpet for your dog to tread on - they can get quite annoyed about this when it has happened a number of times.
NB. A note on wiring
I wire every reed I make, as this gives me ultimate control over the aperture and discourages any leaks. This is a personal choice which has served me very well professionally. Some players aren’t too keen on using wire and you will want to experiment for yourself to find the best option for you, but I do believe that wire of a suitably fine diameter is very useful in supporting the reed’s aperture. Most problems encountered with wiring seem to be due to wire which is too thick or placed too high on the reed, both of which will tend to dampen the vibrations.
6. Soften the reed until you feel comfortable playing on it. This is done by scraping over the whole of the U-shape area gently in a diagonal action, from the left-hand ‘corner’ of the U-shape to the right-hand of the tip, and vice versa. Keep the reed moist at all times, keep using a wrist action and do the same amount of scraping to both blades of the reed, aiming to smooth out any slight lumps and bumps as you go. Do not scrape straight up the middle of the reed. Try the reed regularly until you like it. Remember to keep breathing while you scrape!
This whole process should take only 10 to 15 minutes and then you should be pleased with the result, hopefully. When trying this method, only scrape the reed in the order I suggest, otherwise the reed may collapse and sound too thin. (This is the reason for my constant reminders to avoid scraping up the middle of the reed, which is where the reed’s ’body’ comes from.)
After a few days the reed will have thickened up. Sometimes players are surprised to learn that their own, or bought reeds change after a while and need re-adjustment, thinking instead that the reed has gone off. It is very easy to make a reed play well again by washing it under a cold running tap, re-soaking it, then softening it as follows:
a. Scrape all over the U-shape with a diagonal action, or
b. Scrape the sides gently, if you want a darker sound, or
c. Scrape the tip carefully, if you want the reed to articulate more responsively, or
d. A combination of all of the above, but do keep trying the reed regularly between scrapes - proceed with caution.
SOME COMMON PITFALLS
Anyone who is having trouble making reeds is usually put back on the right track by careful consideration and analysis of the following areas:
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