G’day guys,
I know that this subject has been covered in th past, but I can’t find anything useful using the ‘Search’ option.
I recently got some cane from Brian Howard as I was very impressed with the quality of the cane when I ordered some in the past. I spoke to him on the phone before ordering and he was raving about his new improved staples so I got one of them too. The 48mm staple has an extremely long taper (35mm) and the eye has been reamed out a bit so that the I.D of the eye is only slightly less than the O.D of the eye. I am planning on making a reed for a new chanter that I expect to be recieve in a couple of weeks and am not looking forward to having to experiment with reed design again, after a few years of honing the design for my Simack chanter.
I am of the understanding that a longer staple flattens the top notes of the second octave (i.e. A’ and B’) and allows for a deep inserstion of the staple into the tails of the reed. Many chanters are sharp on these notes, so if mine is no different, this staple would be an asset. Otherwise, I am going to have to get some pliers to lower half of the staple to restore the normal 25mm taper.
Not sure what you mean when you say 35mm of 48mm total length is a “long taper”. Are you referring to the section of the staple that is flattened, or is this staple un-flattened?
It’s fairly common for a tapered staple to taper for its entire length (before flattening). I seem to recall indications that the different styles (tapered over the whole length vs tapered only halfway or so) may effect the tuning of the G and A, but can’t state this as a general observation.
Bill,
Thanks for pointing out that I wasn’t clear. I realise that a rolled staple often has a ‘taper’ for its entire length, whereas a tube staple has a consistent internal diameter with a flattened portion - I was referring to a 48mm tube staple with a 35mm flattened portion.
I am not sure I can give you a direct answer to your original question, but perhaps this will give you something to think about; the portion of the staple which is flattened (and the degree to which it is flattened) changes two things. (I am sure you know this already, but perhaps it bears bringing out into the light). Firstly, flattening the staple does produce an effective “taper” in the cross-sectional area, so a longer “flattened” portion means a longer (and more gradual) effective taper. Secondly, and probably the more dramatic effect, is that this also changes the angle at which the reed blades sit and the distance between them. Of course you can correct for this by changing the thickness of the tails and possibly the reed head shape, but this is likely to be the biggest effect you will see from changing the shape of the flattened sections on your staple. For all the usual reasons to do with the details of reed head geometry, whether lengthening the flat section will tend to open or close your reed tips will depend somewhat on the rest of your construction technique, I think.
Making a few rough sketches may help you visualize what’s going on in your particular reed geometry.