[Harp-L] de-embossing and embossing

[captron100@xxxxxxx]

? Thanks to Harp-L I discovered on what to me is a revelation - it's a tool to remove burrs from the long edges of the reed slots
caused by over-embossing.? It also works well to remove metal along the long edges of
reeds themselves tho removing metal from reeds affects the tuning. 
? The magic tool is simply the very thin metal strip that is obtained by taking apart one of
those self-adhesive anti-theft devices that are nowadays on
most items that you buy in department stores.? It measures 1 1/2 inches long x 1/4 inch wide and has a
curvature to it that aids in its use as a scraper.? I love it and
it has greatly improved my ability to emboss.
? I emboss with one stroke
at a time till the reed sticks.? Then i plink to free the reed; I
emboss over and over using this method and when plinking fails to knock
off the burrs, I then use the metal strip to scrape off the burrs.? I do this several times.? Because my embossing station enables me to see the reed slot so well, embossing reduces the tolerances to a huge degree. 
? Of
course, reed alignment often is needed once the embossing reveals that
the reed is sitting off-kilter in it's slot, so a reed wrench is
needed to re-align the reed.? I got mine for $5 from Bill Rommel.? Lastly, if i want to go ape, I use a glass cutter to engrave a channel next to the reed slot at the rivet end - this squashes the metal a bit, in towards the reed to reduce tolerances.? I sometimes slip with the glass cutter and ruin a reed, so if anyone has a better way to emboss the reed slot near the rivet, I'd like to hear it.? 
ron