Cutting the Tip: Part II

As Olivia mentioned before, it is extremely important to measure your reed before you cut the tip!

Then make a mark where you wish to cut.

It's a good idea to have a completed reed to compare your work-in-progress reed to, so that you can see how they line up and where else you need to scrape.

If you don't soak your reed, when you try to cut the tip your cane will crack!  Trust me, I learned the hard way.

Carefully line up your razor blade along the pencil mark.  Be sure to cut in a straight line.  Only take off a little bit of the tip.

Like Olivia mentioned before, hold your reed at an angle and rock the razor blade back and forth firmly, until you've successfully cut off the tip.

As you can see, my cut was very straight, so I then went back and straightened out my line.

Ta-da!  You now have an open reed!

Once you've cut off the very top part of your reed, you're free to begin scraping on your reed again. 

-Julia