Oboe reeds
Handcrafted Oboe reed in European style, but very good playable with an easy, O-shaped embouchure. Reeds in this style have a consistent tone quality, are very stable and offer great flexibility. I make reeds in the French tradition, rather narrow, with a clearly defined spine and on a long staple or Dutch reeds, a little wider on a short staple, a longer scrape and a little thicker at the sides. Dutch School reeds came from the craftsmanship of Jaap en Haakon Stotijn, father and son and both very famous Oboists who inspired generations of students and soloists alike.
My reed making starts with carefully selected cane (Alliaud 10.5 – 11, medium hard) that I gouge with a machine at 0.65 mm. The shaping is done by hand or with a shaper. I have a stash of shaped cane that I keep for a few day before tying it to a blank. Blanks I keep for at least a month, sometimes a lot longer before I start scraping. Once The scaring process starts, I make an initial scrape on a wet reed, put it away for a day or two, give it a second scrape while wet, and a day or two later I perform the final scrape on the reed while dry. Besides scraping with a knife I use other tools like a very fine file to make the reed even and smooth. After that only small adjustments have to be made while “warming up” the reed until it is ready to take to the stage. The reeds I make for others have plenty of room for adjustment to make is one’s own. Every shipped reed comes with a download link to my “how to adjust my new reed” manual that gives hands on instructions on how to perform some scraping to adjust the pitch and how to make playing it easier without losing stability. That is especially nice for those who are still training their mouth muscles. There is also a logbook where the dates are logged when the gouging, the tying and the scraping were done. I am located in the Netherlands. We have a fairly humid climate with winters around 0 degrees Celsius and summers (hopefully) around 20-30 degrees Celsius. Excellent conditions for storing and processing cane and making reeds.
During production I use either teflon or plastic but before shipping I wrap part of the reed in Gold-bearers skin. I tie my reeds with copper because it is more flexible and produces a warmer ton than brass. Bass I only use in early stages.
My reeds can be purchased in the Home of Creation Etsy shop. I can also make custom reeds, with a different gouge, or different cane diameter, but than the order processing time will be at least two weeks. I never will rush production and step away from my method or having one or two days, for the reed to settle in between stages. If I don’t have a blank that has been resting for at least a month, I can still take your order, but the processing time will increase accordingly. My blanks rest for at least a month. For regular customers, I will keep a stash of blanks, to be finished on demand.
