[Harp-L] Polishing reeds

[diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx]

I guess I'm the first guy to "polish" reeds when introducing the Shofu Brownies about 16 years ago on harpl. 

That wasn't my intent. It was an alternative to using files or dental burs to tune but quickly caught on as a way to remove the tuning hash marks on reeds. The idea some people had was that reeds break where the tuning marks are scored near the reed base. I've never seen a reed break diagonally nor found the factory tuning marks the cause of reed failure. 

It is more important to notice the way the reed is cut rather then tuned at the factory IMHO. 

The 1st generation of great harp techs used a sanding wand to get the same effect as "polishing" the reed. 
They would sand the length of the reed and focus especially on the point where the reed pad and reed meet. 
I think it was Doug Tate who picked up on the idea of "polishing" the reed rather then sanding it to get the same results. 

The term "polishing" the reed is a misnomer when using rubber abrasives. In the jewelry and dental trade we call it rubber wheeling. The rubber wheels come in various shapes and grits. Black being the coarsest and blue green being the finest. Coarseness colors can vary slightly depending on the mfg. They are used to remove scratches not polish. A Brownie fits somewhere in the middle. Actual polishing is done with polish. Although a rubber wheel or point like the Shofu WH6 or PC2 can create a polish look its is referred to as an abrasive wheel in the industry. 

AFA polished replacement reeds last longer then other reeds on the harp, well, think about it. 
A new reed will by it's nature last longer then one that has been played many times. I replace a serious amount of reeds a year and never rubber wheel them. Some of my chromatic customers have more then 8 replacement reeds on their harps. I don't think or try to do anything special to the reed other then install it correctly and they generally last many years. The exception being on the upper narrower reeds on Hohner chromatics. 

The result of radically reducing the reed pitch at the base by rubber wheeling it then bringing it back up into pitch does make the reed respond easier. I taught this to list member Daine Paul Russell about 12-13 years ago. He detunes then retunes his 1847's to allow him to control the reeds easier for overblowing. 

You do have to be careful with this method though. You can actually take the growl out of the reed by making it play too easy. The reeds become spongy for lack of a better term. 

BTW, I did actually polish several sets of Marine Band plates 13 years ago using polish and a buffing wheel. They still have a high gold like shine. I never got around to remounting them. I've been saving them to eventually use on customs. 

Mike 
www.harmonicarepair.com