Re: [Harp-L] The reed issue

[Joe and Cass Leone <leone@xxxxxxxx>]

I find the following: flexing wire
aluminum...... ridiculously low number of bends (6 to 10). Alum is  
best used in sheets where the load can be spread over a flat surface.  
Modulus of elasticity is poor. Not good for trailers, cars, trucks or  
vehicles where sudden shock is put on it (especially at the welds).  
Best used in aircraft.

brass...... very maleable. (20-25 bends) Older plumbing is red brass  
(good stuff). Newer plumbing is yellow (naval) and still decent.  
Modern brass has too much recycled scrap in it.

bronze....... same as alum. Fairly brittle. 6 bends (at most)

mild steel.....10-15 bends. Not as maleable as brass.

stainless.......15-19 bends. (If not hardened)

copper........more than 25 bends.

silver........more than 15 bends

disclaimer. Naturally, there are in infinite number of alloys  
available today. This makes our search overwhealming. This plethora  
of alloys also complicates things as it tends to get into all the  
other metals in amounts anywhere from trace to much.

Suffices to say that ANY spring material will work as a reed. (Even  
bamboo, plastics, celluloids, carbon fibre, glass fibre, bone). I  
(personally) feel that a copper berrylium silver  alloy (Silcober)  
would do it.

smo-joe



On Mar 24, 2007, at 11:59 AM, Zombor Kovacs wrote:

> I don't have much experience with Hohner, but others
> will tell us about their experience.
> How much has Hohner invested in investigating reed
> fatigue? As it is known copper does not have a fatigue
> limit. It will fail after a number of cycles anyway.
> Below the fatique limit steel and titanium alloys will
> theoretically not fail after an infinite number of
> cycles. Certainly a harp which never fails is no
> business for Hohner (nor for others), no matter at
> what price it is sold.
>
>
> --- Fernando Bresslau <fernando@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
> > The balance that we try to keep at Hohner is between
> > tone and
> > durability. We want to have both, good tone and long
> > life expectancy.
> > From our experience, you don't get both at the same
> > time.
> > A harmonica with short life expectancy gives the
> > opportunity to the
> > customer to change brands, and we don't want that.
> > In any case, nobody at Hohner believes that
> > harmonicas which go south
> > faster will increase sales.
> > We have assembled and I have played harmonicas with
> > SS reeds. They
> > sound just fine and play well. But the manufacturing
> > process is much
> > more complicated and we don't have reasons to
> > believe that reeds will
> > last much longer. The Harmonetta had SS reeds and
> > had issues with
> > durability.
> > But Hohner continuosly tries new materials out, and
> > we are already
> > clearly at a better performance/tone point than we
> > were in the 80s or
> > even the 90s.
> > Other manufacturers are making interesting
> > experiences. We are curious
> > to see what results they get, and are open to new
> > ideas.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Fernando
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________ 
> ______________
> 8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time
> with the Yahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut.
> http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#news
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
>
> !DSPAM:5614,46054b7310591001413784!