Chiff and Fipple Forums

Take a little square section block of wood, carve out a channel on one side, fill with BluTak. Voila, you can grab your slip of cane and it won't let go for nothing. No more licking digits! Ewww. You can push like a son of a gun too. Good luck doing that with just saliva's surface tension. I always despised sanding slips down, way more than any of the other steps in reedmaking. This makes the process a snap, relatively speaking anyway.

Another thing I've taken up is using a belt sander to smooth down staples, instead of futzing around with files. Think I wrote about that elsewhere. Much faster and accurate, well for me at least.

Patent pending?

How do you loozen it afterwards? Just lift off carefully?

Looks like a good idea Kevin , that white 'blu-tack'.

Not so sure about beltsanding staples though...... but then I'm a File man (first six months of my apprenticeship...."here's yer File... here's yer lump of Steel... get on with that!")... being able to hold the 'job' in one hand and the 'tool' in the other appears to me to be a recipe for better control.

Geoff.

I bet it works a treat. Does the white tac not get dusty and need replacing often?
Here is my reedgripper which has worked well for years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nxDLw3l6-8

I tried similar ideas but I found a lack of control on where you could put pressure ,to sand more off a part of the slip where needed.

RORY

rorybbellows wrote:I tried similar ideas but I found a lack of control on where you could put pressure ,to sand more off a part of the slip where needed.

RORY

I find it can be leaned on up the length of one side or the other or ends or middle, to a little degree; however, as I use it first to bring the slip down to a reasonably even D shaped profile slip before gouging, there is not too much need for ironing out uneveness in thickness, only the uneveness of gouging.

You eventually need to add a bit more blu-tak from all the dust, yes. That's a small price to pay.

How does your block work, KM? Is that leather on the bottom?

I've cranked out about a dozen reeds with the block so far and they've sanded up fine, no bare spots. Sometimes I'll have to take the slip off and sand the sides down. It's not that tacky, Hans. Blu-tak is usually used to hold up posters, after all.

The belt sander's much faster for me, I'm lazy. Also not a craftsman in any sense of the word. My hat's off to you guys! Although my reeds do look like reeds, not dinky canoe paddles, like so many do.

Kevin L. Rietmann wrote:How does your block work, KM? Is that leather on the bottom?

High friction material

I'd been using two blobs of blu-tak, sans grooved block. I like your idea better. Thanks!

KM's block looks like magic!

Another thing that works pretty good is ultra thin, tight fitting, surgical gloves. Brush off any dust that may collect and it's good as new again. Touch a damp sponge...even better.

Kenneth McNicholl Scotland uilleann pipe maker makes Slip holding block for reed-making The original reed-gripper £15
http://www.kmbagpipes.com/rdmkg.html


https://youtu.be/-nxDLw3l6-8

Cheers

Fergus

....or....slightly less than GBP15.....

- get hold of an old silicone shoe insert
- cut a strip which is of roughly uniform thickness (i.e. not the thicker heel section)
- contact glue one side to your wooden holder

Grips the same as blu-tak and has the advantage that it doesn't absorb dust and can
be washed clean.

M

Anybody have any ideas on finding the right kind of silicone or rubber for this? I tried some shoe inserts and that material didn't work at all.

Hi Kevin

The sort of shoe insert I've used are the cheaper ones sold on fleabay from China - advertised actually
as "silicone heel liner". About $1, inc. shipping.

I originally bought these for something completely different, and found the offcuts to have the right
amount of "grabbiness" for holding the cane. Guess its a case of YMMV though.

HTH
M