Way back last August I booked myself on a reed making day course that I'd seen advertised. It finally took place last Saturday! I have to admit I haven't really done very much reed making recently. I did a little tying on earlier in the year but that is about it. The course was great though and has given me a much needed push.
There were only 6 of us in the group so chance for plenty of questions. We went through the whole process - from tube cane to finished reed. Obviously not much time for refining of the reed at the end but it was really helpful to have some focussed time thinking about reeds and also interesting to see a different way of doing things.
Possibly the two most useful things for me were:
1. A detailed demonstration on how to sharpen my knife - I kind of knew how but it was useful to know that I was on the right track. I was always slightly worried I was ruining my knife rather than sharpening it!
2. A clear approach to how to scrape a blank consistently - my teacher uses a profiler so hadn't given me too much guidance here. I had picked up one approach from my reed making DVD but it was good to have an alternative view.
I picked up some other tips about general scraping technique too.
In terms of going forward I've realised I need to just practice my scraping skills more. I have some blanks made with quite cheap cane which aren't going to make good reeds - they are far too open at the top -so I am using them to specifically practice making a neat U at the bottom and also scraping a good tip without slicing off the corners. I thought this was something I could maybe manage in my lunch break at work, sadly it turns out that I couldn't really see what I was doing. I did much better at my window at home.
There is a saying that the three most important things for making reeds are:
1, a sharp knife
2. a sharp knife
3. a sharp knife.
Personally I would also add - good light. Or maybe that's just a sign of getting old...
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