Chiff and Fipple Forums

Anyone try the Chinese cane yet?
Came across the cane on Npu website, first time I've heard of reed grade cane from China.

https://pipers.ie/store/products/chines ... dle-of-10/
RORY

I got hold of some recently.

The tubes very clean, a little shorter than previous sources, but uniform, and with a somewhat small wall thickness; straight tubes and grain. approx. 130 mm X 24 mm and 3mm wall. Wasn't as soft as I expected or hoped, but carved well, if a little tough. I had given up on my previous cane, but that was old and was the dross of a large previous batch .

I have made one reed from the the new cane - a reg reed, with a head width of 10 mm. I expected it to crack on tying in to a 3.1 mm staple, which it did. Just for bad, I sealed the crack and finished the head. It is doing the job in the set it was made for, or at least much better than from the old supply.

I would have preferred a softer cane (finger nail test) and a longer tube perhaps and a little thicker wall. I didn't dally in tying in, so a fairly brutal test.

I am not the worlds best reed maker, and I will stick with the cane.

Tried something Chinese, but its not the NPU stuff...
Found it sold here in hardware store for garden stakes.
As above, its harder than I like and splitting on tying is more likely. Darker colour - kind of like a dark milk coffee. Long between nodes - around 16 inches - and pretty straight.
I tried it because 4 feet lengths were only $4 but I dont think its superior.

M

FWIW, we may be dealing with some language difficulties. What we want is technically lu1zhu1 芦竹. This is Arundo Donax. This is a scientific term and is specific to music or Mediterranean Cane. When it comes to agricultural products in Chinese there are a multitude of dialectical and provincial variants and can lead to misunderstandings.

Bob

hmm...not really.
No claim was made for botanical identity or superiority. Simply a case of "cane" from a "location".
Not unlike the "...I wonder if I can make a reed from spruce?..." view, the post simply related experience with a material that presented.
Fair?

m4malious wrote: ↑Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:22 pm hmm...not really.
No claim was made for botanical identity or superiority. Simply a case of "cane" from a "location".
Not unlike the "...I wonder if I can make a reed from spruce?..." view, the post simply related experience with a material that presented.
Fair?

Too true. In SE Asia they have beaucoup kinds of canes and grasses. I once bought some ¨grass mats¨ at a garden store for $ and was able to make drone reeds from it. It was thicker and tougher than phragmites but not as tough as Arundo. It had a salty feel and taste like it grew in brackish tide water. Couldn´t really say what it was.

Reflecting on the other responses, the uniformity of the tubes I obtained, a) I am wondering if the interior has been dressed to remove material, and 2) the colour and texture of the exterior might suggest some other but related spp. to A.donax.

A further reed was made, and the head did not crack in tying on and scraping.

The tubes certainly have been processed to produce a uniform product.

We live in the south of Portugal, where there is lots of cane, and I was thinking of something to do for us while out rambling around. If you like, over the next month or whatever time it takes, we would be happy to harvest some cane for you, say to box up 300 pieces, and you arrange and pay for collection. I would post up some photos of the cane growing here and you would have to say what you would prefer of those available. This is not for resale, i.e. is just for yourself and to share around. Maybe it wouldn't be top quality, or would be more something for anyone to practice making on etc., I don't know. Would take the time it does, so it's not to meet immediate need.

We live in the south of Portugal, where there is lots of cane, and I was thinking of something to do for us while out rambling around. If you like

Ted Anderson has posted here a few times re what to look out for, the best time to cut cane, general harvest tips, sizes and drying etc. Search the piping forum for this, posted under username Ted.

Re. Mr Gumby

Oh, I'm not going to get too involved in all of that, just keeping it simple because being sat in the shade of some cañas and cutting some to length on an occasional afternoon, till there is a boxful, is something to look forward to.

If Rory takes up the offer, he can guide me a bit from photos etc., but I'm not studying cane selection as well

Good approach - KIS(S).
You could take a leaf out of the pro reed shops and offer to ship 2 or 3 tubes as "testers".
Post cost might be ugly, but trialling a few tubes (can) tell a lot about the general quality.

You might also be (pleasantly) surprised about the reception.
I've posted before on C&F - the best cane, bar none, that I ever had was found on a street on the clifftop at Valparaiso, walking distance from Nerudas house.
That's a subjective statement of course, but I'd pay good money to anyone there to collect more for me.
M

M4, I'm not selling though. Seriously, we are near a stream km of which are lined with cane. It is hotter here now, what to do afternoons instead of walks ? As long as someone pays postage and agrees not to resell but to share around some, we can prepare a box full. 10x3 cm, 30 x 30 box is 300 pieces. Postage ten or twenty pounds probably... I'd even pay that just to make space .

Caveat, all in own time.

Not an attempt to undercut NPU, but sometimes the original source helps....

A couple of minutes of web noodling shows the orchestral scene links;

http://www.shop.kge-doublereeds.com/aboutus.sc
https://www.oboe-shop.de/en/feng-oboe-tube-cane.html

Outstanding research! Thank you m4malious.

Bob

I read the very interesting research by Bill Haneman and his colleagues in the August edition of An Píobaire so I got some Chinese cane from NPU and found it to be quite good to work with, if a little tougher than expected. it certainly seems to be processed in some way but I've gotten quite good results having made 3 concert pitch reeds.

I had no cracking of the cane and it's nice to carve and sand. I would have liked to try a slightly larger diameter (24-25mm) to make some wider heads.

As a reedmaker of no great experience, overall I found the Chinese cane much easier to work with than my current supply of Spanish cane which is pretty hard.

Tony