Thank you for the videos. Very informative and helpful. I do not play the bassoon. However, my son does. I am just a dad helping my son get started on making reeds after I learned that the brass wire commonly used in making reeds contains lead and the lead seems to leach in the reed from the soaking. The lead was actually detected on the reed with 3M LeadCheck swab. I am experimenting with surgical stainless steel wire. We also used your method of hot gluing since I couldn't find any Duco cement locally, and I am glad I did; less toxins. Which do you think is more of a health hazard: the lead in the brass wire or Duco cement?
Do you mean the thickness of the blade? That will have to do with the gouger and profiler. Also remember that reed blanks are going to be significantly thicker than a finished reed. Or are you referring to the width of the blades? This can very by a few millimeters depending on the SHAPER as well as the length of the blade. I use a Herzberg shape which is slightly on the narrow side and cut my blades at about 1 1/16 inches.
Do you mean the width of the blades? This would have to do with that shape you're using and the point at which you're cutting the blade. In other words, there can be a lot of variation in the width of a well-playing reed.
I have had a lot of students who insist on keeping track of "which reed is which". I've never found this to matter. Reeds are constantly changing, so any given reed will be quite different from one day (or even an hour) to the next. It's actually quite easy to label your reeds by marking with pen on a small piece of paper and glueing over it. This CAN be useful if you are experimenting with some sort of variation in your reedmaking.
Thank you for the videos. Very informative and helpful. I do not play the bassoon. However, my son does. I am just a dad helping my son get started on making reeds after I learned that the brass wire commonly used in making reeds contains lead and the lead seems to leach in the reed from the soaking. The lead was actually detected on the reed with 3M LeadCheck swab. I am experimenting with surgical stainless steel wire. We also used your method of hot gluing since I couldn't find any Duco cement locally, and I am glad I did; less toxins. Which do you think is more of a health hazard: the lead in the brass wire or Duco cement?
Wow, thank you for this! I've actually never heard anything about lead being used in brass and will have to do some research!
great i´m going to do it.
ScottAlexandersHowTo how thick are your reeds? Im interested because im a student and i always get skinny reeds which is suspicious
Do you mean the thickness of the blade? That will have to do with the gouger and profiler. Also remember that reed blanks are going to be significantly thicker than a finished reed.
Or are you referring to the width of the blades? This can very by a few millimeters depending on the SHAPER as well as the length of the blade. I use a Herzberg shape which is slightly on the narrow side and cut my blades at about 1 1/16 inches.
Do you mean the width of the blades? This would have to do with that shape you're using and the point at which you're cutting the blade. In other words, there can be a lot of variation in the width of a well-playing reed.
i dont agree with you there. It is imporant not because of the looks but so you could recognise which reed is which
I have had a lot of students who insist on keeping track of "which reed is which". I've never found this to matter. Reeds are constantly changing, so any given reed will be quite different from one day (or even an hour) to the next.
It's actually quite easy to label your reeds by marking with pen on a small piece of paper and glueing over it. This CAN be useful if you are experimenting with some sort of variation in your reedmaking.