Blanks & Video- Tying

Two blanks I tied at my lesson on Saturday! Will start scraping  these so they can vibrate. 

Julia working on her reed, scraping and listening to some music :)

Julia's box of reed supplies! Reed case, string, staples, etc.

Video- Tying a blank, make sure string is held tight and both sides of reed close when tightening first three wraps. First three wraps should not be committed yet, but rather just to hold the cane in place. Remember to adjust as you go along, and make sure everything is in align with the mandrel and staple. 

-Olivia

Scraping & Video

This is a completed reed that I made a few months ago.  It actually plays!   This reed took a lot of hard work and dedication, and now I use it as an example reed to look at when I need to see how many steps I need to complete on a work-in-progress reed.

As Olivia and I mentioned earlier, be sure to slightly push your thumb into your knife,  to ensure that you're actually scraping cane off of the reed.  Don't apply too much pressure though!

A video of me scraping . . . as you can see, scraping becomes quite tedious after a while, but it's important that you stay focused the entire time.  You'll be done before you know it, and then you'll feel proud about your new reed.

Enjoy! 

(Please ignore the background noise-this video was filmed at school.)

-Julia

Where to Purchase - Supplies

Most oboe reed making supplies can be purchased online, and in the past my teacher Karen has suggested several sites that she recommends and purchases from herself. If you are just beginning to make reeds and don't have any reed supplies at all, many sites sell reed making kits that come with all the supplies needed (knife, plaque, spool, etc). The following are some sites that I have purchased from in the past: 

Oboe Cane & Reeds, Stuart Dunkel and Kristen Severson

This is where I have purchased the majority of my supplies - plaques, mandrel, cutting block, cane and beeswax 

Mark Chudnow Woodwinds

As Julia mentioned before, MCW has many supplies and is where I purchased my knife as well. The knife works very well and I would highly recommend it to anyone. 

Forrests

Julia mentioned this site earlier, and Forrests is a good resource for a variety of supplies. While browsing the site, I just discovered they also sell this oboe reed making cartoon, illustrated by Bill Bennett....

-Olivia