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It can sometimes look like handwriting is becoming redundant, it’s a skill that is still today essential in many walks of life. A written missive communicates more importance than a typed missive; e.g. an invitation, an apology, or an application for a job.

One may think it’s a recent fad of the masses eschewing hand-writing for the keyboard, yet way back to the late 1800s, there were cries that hand-writing was being overlooked due to the typewriter. These days, the fault is being linked to the use of computer keyboards.

Even so, there is still a healthy demand for handwriting skills in in all walks of life. Penned missives are viewed as more trustworthy, they demonstrate the author has carefully thought out her words, while demonstrating more deference to the reader. In the modern age of “canned responses”, the hand-written missive has never been more powerful.

I have an admission to make. I have oftentimes been caught out with my bad hand writing - made even worse due to decades of reliance on the keyboard. In situations in which I’ve had to hand write something, my writing’s been a sloping scrawl. That can be embarrassing. So how did I get over this issue?How to resolve such a problem? I wrote as often as I could, and my handwriting improved greatly. Therefore it’s wise to polish your hand writing through sheer repitition.

Another piece of advice is to acquire a pen your hand is comfy with, and it must accept refills. A recommended pen to refill with is the celebrated mont blanc fountain pen. This enables you to polish your handwriting with the same pen.

Scraping an oboe reed blank is a little like creating a shell for the reed to live in. It isn’t really an oboe reed yet, but it has to be a good enough shell so that the reed can eventually take shape within it. It seems like a rather abstract idea now, so just remember… Your initial goal is to just get some cane off the reed.

All that hard shiny cane must go for the reed to vibrate. Although this part of oboe
reed making is not very detailed, you will have to learn basic knife control to get the
shiny cane off. Of course, practice makes perfect.

As your reed making skill improves, however, don’t let yourself get bogged down
with this step. I have seen may experienced reed making students take such care
and time with this part - the “getting the cane off” part. It is not necessary!

Eventually you want to get the rough cane off as quick and as easily as possible.
Someone that knows nothing about oboe reed making could learn to do this
efficiently and consistently with just a little practice.

Although you will probably end of finishing your reeds while they are wet, I like to
scrape blanks (up until the point where I clip the tip) when they are pretty dry. That
is just my preference because I don’t feel that the actual blank scraping is the
detailed part.

Again, you are just making a reed shell right now. You will have to experiment with
how hard you press when you are scraping. It isn’t something I can explain in words
except to say you always want to use the least amount of pressure possible so that
you don’t crack the cane.

Your right hand is just going to move the knife, it is your left hand that will anchor
and apply pressure when you need it. You will figure many of these things out for
yourself. Even a private reed making teacher wouldn’t be able to actually feel how
much pressure you are using. And it is a totally individual thing anyway.

So take your blank and mark 68 mm. A finished reed will be about 69-70 mm, so I
like to start scraping my tip at about 68. Don’t forget to keep that picture of each
side of the oboe reed separated by the important spine.

With your knife, you are going to do at least 15 scrapes of the tip on each side of
the spine. Start at the line you drew and let’s do the left side first. Draw your knife
up and all the way to the very end of tip so that it goes off the end.

This is a very important habit to create.

You always want to scrape the tip and get used to going off the very end. Once you
do about 15 scrapes on the left side of the tip, do the right side. Then turn the reed
over and do the same exact thing on the flipside.

When you are done you will have rough scraped the tip of the oboe reed!

Now onto rough scraping the body of the reed.

We’re going to apply the same concept you used on the tip and scrape all the way
from a few millimeters above the string up until the heart starts, probably about 65
mm. Again you are going to honor the spine, and when you are done with this part
there will be a visible spine that you have made down the entire reed. Do about
10-12 of these scrapes on all 4 sides of the reed. You should have taken off a good
deal of cane by now.

If you barely see any cane on your table, you are probably not pressing hard
enough. These rough scrapes need to remove cane, not just caress it. There is no
way a reed is going to vibrate if it has tons and tons of heavy cane on it.

Sometimes I am ready to clip at this point. But most of the time I go back to the tip
and kind of repeat what I already did - 15 scrapes on each side of the spine and
then again on the flipside.

About the Author

Oboist and online entrepreneur Maryn Leister helps beginner and professional
oboists to be more productive and have more fun on the oboe. She publishes the
weekly Oboe: Space newsletter, the Oboe Insider, and gives away more FREE oboe
reed tips than she can remember with her Reed Guru service.

Sign-up for the Oboe:Space newsletter and start getting your FREE oboe reed tips
now at http://www.oboespace.com

This article is a short excerpt from “The Beginner’s Guide to Making Your
First Playing Oboe Reed… in 9 Days or Less”, a step-by-step guide to
help you start your oboe reed making journey. Click below to get more details.

Making Oboe Reeds