Making an Oboe Reed

Stage one in making any reed is the selecting and splitting of the tube cane, followed by gouging to the desired measurement. The gouge dictates the thickness and strength of a piece of cane and is measured to the thousandth of a millimetre. I use reed-making machines manufactured by the German company Reeds ‘n Stuff. These are highly accurate machines and produce consistent results which are essential to reed making.

Stage two is shaping the cane. This can be achieved in a couple of ways though I prefer to use a straight shaper form. What shape you use is often a personal choice that often comes about with much trial, error, and experience. There are many different sizes, styles, and shaper templates to choose from and it really is a balancing act to what style you go for. Wider shapes are more responsive in the lower registers but you may lose some of the pitch stability of thinner reeds. I have three shaper forms I regularly use and will always offer the thinner as standard. Of course like all things oboe reed-related cane is an organic matter, so no matter how much we try sometimes we have no control over the finished article.

Stage Four is scraping the reed. I have deliberately left out stage three tying on the cane to the staple for now as this can be quite in-depth.

Scraping and adjusting the reed is the final step in creating a ‘finished’ reed. Experience tells me that reeds are never finished even as they give up on us. For many years I would spend a great deal of time sitting in a corner of a room whittling away on a piece of cane – often with frustrating results and a lot of making good with what I was left with. Consistency was always an issue making reeds by hand, converting to a profiling machine changed everything, and with consistent results every time it gave me the freedom to experiment and try new combinations. Much like shaping the cane, the final scrape is also personal choice, and there are countless combinations to try as we search for that ‘golden’ reed.