Re: [Harp-L] Embossing Tools

[Joel Fritz <jfritz666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Michalek wrote:
> When I set up my harps the first thing I do is emboss all of the
> reeds and then push them all down into the slot.  My goal is to get
> them to be as flat as possible before I arc and gap them.
>
> The reeds are like springs and you have to reset the spring memory. 


It's a good metaphor, but springs don't have memory.  A spring has a 
combination of strength and toughness that allows it to be bent, 
compressed, or stretched a whole bunch without losing its original 
shape. Harmonica reeds are springs. Once a spring is bent into a new 
shape that it holds it has to be bent again to go back to the original 
shape. Reed gapping is bending the reed permanently.  Flattening the 
reeds before arcing and gapping may make it easier to get the exact 
shape you want but the flattening step is bending the reed permanently 
too.  The flattening step may make the reed a bit harder because bending 
a piece of metal without breaking it "stores" additional stress in the 
metal that makes it resist being bent more than it did.

There is an alloy called NiTinol that does have a memory like property. 
   It can be deformed to a new shape but when it's heated to 120 F it 
goes back to its original shape.  Pretty cool. There are some 
interesting medical uses, among others, treatment of broken bones.

BTW, the spring contacts that hold computer expansion boards in their 
slots look a lot like harmonica reeds if you see them outside the slot 
enclosure.

I learned to play(?) harmonica through heat treating (rule of thumb 
metallurgy.)  I was in charge of the graveyard shift in a shop that was 
nearly a block long.  I only had two people working for me.  There was 
two to three hours a night of real work.  The rest of the time I let my 
people sleep or whatever while I went off to a far corner of the shop 
and practiced.  Aside from the value of repetition there was a Diogenes 
thing going on too.  The machinery was pretty noisy and I learned to 
play loudly without putting a lot of stress on the reeds.


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