[Harp-L] sealing a wooden comb with walnut oil

[Avery Man <elfrex@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

bought a Hering master blues in A and was setting it up to overblow. it came out of the box pretty well tuned. after some time my lips started bleeding and the teeth of the middle register had swollen till they were protruding about 2mm each. I was reminded of why I switched from MB's to S20's and GM's so many years ago. I did not have this problem with the Hering Vintage which is more completely sealed.

I decided to try walnut oil used to finish salad bowls because I wasn't up for beeswax and potential 2nd degree burns. I tested the finish on an old saxophone reed first and it looked water repellant. I read that it takes 3 months to cure from a Shakuhachi (Japanese flute) site so I dipped the comb in walnut oil purchased from Whole Foods for half an hour, let it dry for 2 days, and repeated the process 4 times before reassembling the harp and leaving it exposed to light to cure. 

I don't know if 3 months was necessary but after that period of time, I opened up the harp to see the nice finish on what had been bare wood. I have been slobbering on the thing for 3 weeks now and the swelling no longer occurs even after 2 hours of playing (it used to swell after 20 mins) and it tastes much better. It is now one of my best harps and my walk around goto A-harp (a high honor).

No, i'm not gonna do this again. 3 months is too long to wait but i did manage to get out of what would have been a dealbreaker. 

_________________________________________________________________
Windows Live™ Hotmail®: Celebrate the moment with your favorite sports pics. Check it out.
http://www.windowslive.com/Online/Hotmail/Campaign/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_QA_HM_sports_photos_072009&cat=sports