Re: [Harp-L] Treating reeds for stress

[fjm <bad_hat@xxxxxxxx>]

You won't be annealing brass at the temperatures you've listed.  70-30 
brass anneals at 800-1400 F and it quickly sweats out the zinc in the 
allo towards the upper end of that number.  Machineries Handbook didn't 
have any specs for brass alloys and annealing but an ASTM spec was 
readily available.  Most of the harmonica reeds I've seen recently 
appear to be yellow not red brass so the 70-30 spec should be in the 
ballpark.  There is a listing for the stress relief temperature and it 
is 500 F for an hour.  I regularly anneal copper and that starts to get 
soft once you get it over 700F.  The rate of cooling has nothing to do 
with annealing of copper alloys.  I'm with Vern, I think annealing brass 
reeds isn't going to make them a better or longer lived spring.  maybe 
stress relieving them would but my guess is polishing the surface would 
 yield better results.

Sure reeds in harmonicas do break but for me the rate at which they 
currently are failing doesn't merit any intervention.  It is years not 
months days or weeks.  The most significant change you can make to 
enhance harmonica reed life is playing technique.

fjm