Chiff and Fipple Forums

Hi all

Can anyone help with sourcing californian cane. Have become more and more despondant recently with the french and spanish stuff and would dearly love to get some of the "gold" as paddy keenan calls it.

I got a few tubes of him recently when he was in belfast and the reeds i made were of superior quality in comparison, alas i'm on my last tube

any help would be great

Thanks all

Talk to this guy. He supplies Paddy with his cane.
Name is Ted Anderson. Posts here once in a while.

When did you come down from the mountain? I thought you were going into exile with the 'coons and grizzlies?!

(Hey David, I got snowed out. Had to come back to the valley for
the winter. Got the roof on and will finish the cabin next summer.
Got a one year plan to get out permanently...maybe 1½)

Back to topic! For Ted's email, see his profile...

http://chiffboard.mati.ca/profile.php?m ... ile&u=1868

I think Ted has more grey hair now...

I live right smack dab in the middle of some of the best cane growing in California, but I have to tell you, not all of it is gold. There's a lot more to it than simply walking out there and cutting it down. You have to find the right stuff and cut it at the right time. The more I try hunting for it, the more I realize how little I know about it and how much more I appreciate what Ted has learned over the years.

Cane hunting can be frustrating. Especially when the best stuff I have found, so far, was cane that had washed up on a beach after a terrible winter storm. It had washed out of a canyon, out to sea and then up on the beach. As you can guess, I am now trying to find that canyon. : )

- t

wolvy wrote:Especially when the best stuff I have found, so far, was cane that had washed up on a beach after a terrible winter storm. It had washed out of a canyon, out to sea and then up on the beach. As you can guess, I am now trying to find that canyon. : )

- t

And some of that very stuff has turned out some very nice reeds. Wolvy, keep hunting, you're on the right track. And if you can nail him down for any length of time ( ), pick Ted's brain for tips and such regarding the Califonia Gold.

I've had great success with Georgia cane that James Dunning sent me. Including the reed I'm playing now, one of the nicest I've had in over 20 years.
Any experience with it Joseph?

Tony wrote:I think Ted has more grey hair now...

A decade will do that to you - http://www.uilleannobsession.com/diary_1997.html

I took that photo at Ted's place when he lived in Tiburon. Great day that. Paddy Keenan was doing a night at The Plough and the Stars... great day.

Pat.

Brad Angus has a whole...cord? of Cal Cane he got in trade from Ted, who in return got a set of pearwood (?) Highland pipes; but Brad tells me he actually prefers some Spanish Medir cane I gave him in return for...hmm...uh...something...
I specifically asked Medir for soft stuff. It's not as cardboard-soft as some Cali (or Flori) I've had. I bought a few Cali sticks off Sean Folsom years ago and that seemed to be as hard as this Spanish stuff actually. Not that it's unforgiveably hard, I've made some real crackers of reeds out of the stuff. The soft stuff I'd want if I had some real screamer of a chanter, but those should all go directly into fires anyway. I don't think Brad's made a Rowsome copy in years now so a harder cane might better suit flat/narrow.
Brad's own boxwood C set is the best-playing contraption I've ever handled. You could drive the thing with one finger. Sound's to die for, too.

bensdad wrote:I've had great success with Georgia cane that James Dunning sent me. Including the reed I'm playing now, one of the nicest I've had in over 20 years.
Any experience with it Joseph?

I have harvested some of it, most of which I gave to David Boisvert. I cut it while driving my way up to the 2005 GNIPC Tionol.

That cane never got used for reeds as I understand it. David gave it to one of his daughters for a class project or something... I must say I was disappointed to hear that, the four or five tubes I used were of good quality. If I had known it wouldn't be used for reeds I would've kept it all myself, a lot of sweat went into harvesting it.

Grrrrrr.

sorry Joe..it wasn't an INTENTIONAL donation to the wee urchin...she has a tendency to grab stuff without asking!

reedbiter wrote:sorry Joe..it wasn't an INTENTIONAL donation to the wee urchin...she has a tendency to grab stuff without asking!

As do all kids.

But being the adult in charge, you should've nuked her fanny with an AK-7 assault rifle and then hanged her carcass up to dry in the cold Minneso.... I mean, you could've asked her to leave it alone.

Thanks all


Hail, Hail and worship your local reedmaker as he can excorcise all develish pipe demons!!!!!

Oh and wolvy if you ever find that canyon let me know and i'll cya there you bring the gouge and i'll bring the sandpaper

Sometimes the cane hunting can get a bit difficult. You sometimes stumble upon "hobo jungles" and the local folks are not very friendly. There is also the danger of accidently finding someone's hidden pot farm. Between that, the spiders, the "Roundup" spraying, the snakes and poison oak, sometimes I think it would be just easier to buy it from the French suppliers.