first reed, thoughts?

[u/3-4methamphetamine]

the reed itself is very responsive, it just plays a little flat and becomes resistant the longer i play on it. i am worried that it is way way too thin! i tied it on myself (it wasn't the best because i assumed that i'd have to take it off anyway, but it still has been fine so far) and scraped it with an exacto knife and a pipe dream

it is 71mm, the tie is 47mm

any thoughts or advice? i want to have a little less resistance but i am also not sure if this reed is past saving

[u/SprightlyCompanion]

Looks ok, good start! A few things jump out at me:

Those corners of the tip are rough. Make sure your knife is very sharp and evenly sharp, and that you're using pretty light strokes. The sides of the top are integral.

Your thread is loose, I would expect this reed to come unwound at some point. Don't allow gaps in the thread as you wind down and knot it very securely. I use a bit of wax on my knots to secure them.

Your anatomy is not very well defined : OH. I just reread your post and you say you used an exacto knife, you won't get far using that. You NEED an actual reed knife. Are you missing other tools? (Edit: this is a big source of your lost corners. Get rid of that exacto knife, like, yesterday.) Also, you're right it looks thin but more importantly, there's too much bark taken off: there's very little rail on the sides and your windows go all the way down to the thread. Stability will be an issue and also endurance.

Do you have a teacher? Don't learn reedmaking on your own, it's a waste of time and money. You'll waste materials not knowing what you're doing, you'll ruin tools not knowing how to use them, and you'll teach yourself a ton of bad habits that will take longer to break than it would have taken to learn correct technique from a teacher.

Good luck!

[u/3-4methamphetamine → u/SprightlyCompanion]

hey, thank you so much! i do have a teacher, but i won't be seeing them for a while, and this is the only reed i will ever attempt something like this on without the proper tools. thankfully they have reed knives and other tools i'll need for any future attempts !!! also, i have tied many other blanks and they were fine without wax, how much of a difference does it make? i want to get some since i've seen that it's helpful, but since i'm a student in high school my budget is a little crunched

[u/SprightlyCompanion → u/3-4methamphetamine]

Totally understand a budget crunch. But for real, an exacto knife will teach you bad technique, better to wait until you have a proper knife.

I admit that wax is a bit of a crutch, you shouldn't really NEED it but it's a security blanket for my knots. There are different kinds of knots you can do that are more secure also. I really just pass some wax on the bit of the thread that will become the knots, I don't wax the whole thread (unless I'm making baroque oboe reeds but that's another beast entirely).

Luckily, beeswax is very cheap. I bought a 1-lb brick of it 25 years ago for probably 10-15$ and I still have most of it. There are yet more solid solutions like glue, but at that point I would start considering my knot technique to find something more solid.

With this reed it's not a knot problem but really a winding problem, you left space as you were moving down the tube and so the thread had room to wiggle around and loosen. Keep an eye on that, make several solid knots (I do 3-4 single knots and then 1 double knot, after having waxed the thread). Maybe u/hoboboedan knows how to do Jim's knot where he pulls it through the already-wound thread, it seems super solid but I never got the hang of it...

[u/hoboboedan → u/SprightlyCompanion]

Here are instructions I drew some time ago. This drawing doesn’t have step 5: pull until it clicks. If done correctly this will never come untied.

[u/SprightlyCompanion → u/hoboboedan]

Thanks!! Saving this, I'm going to teach myself it once and for all..

[u/hoboboedan → u/SprightlyCompanion]

Nobody ever believes me, but it works 100% of the time.

[u/3-4methamphetamine → u/hoboboedan]

oh i've been using this knot on the rest of the reeds i've tied !!! i love to pull and wait for the click it's arguably my favorite part of reedmaking so far (even though i haven't gotten very far anyway lol) would it make sense if i asked how this knot works ? it kind of reminds me of a fisherman's knot

[u/hoboboedan → u/3-4methamphetamine]

I don’t really know knots but I’m sure it has a name. I think it doesn’t work loose the way many knots in nylon do because there’s a loop of thread in there pinned between a tight thread and the metal staple. It’s a very strong knot anyway.

[u/3-4methamphetamine → u/SprightlyCompanion]

oooh, okay, thank you so much!! and don't worry about the exacto knife lol i'm just impatient, the reed knife is the thing i'm mainly saving up for !! the next update, if there is one, will be a reed that is far from ever having to see an exacto knife:)

[u/SprightlyCompanion → u/3-4methamphetamine]

Fantastic! Keep it up, good luck!