Bag seasoning

[Brazenkane]

Can anyone recommend a quick and not-totally-messy seasoning to use!? I have an L&M bag from around the 2yr old vintage when they were having issues, and well... mine is no exception.

Thanks!

[Mr.Gumby]

See here? maybe.

[geoff wooff]

However,
if your bag has issues... like the leather used was not tanned properly, or something went wrong with the bag maker's supply of good hides.... or there is air coming out of the stitch holes due to leather stretching around the stiches or the stitches having not been pulled tightly enough, or the Awl holes were too big in the first place etc etc etc ad infinitum... then you are probably wasting your time trying to seal it with some seasoning gooop.

Your Call Kinch!

[allan moller]

www.robertsons-original.com.is wonderful stuff,you just heat it up in a microwave pour into your bag,massage it and drain leave overnight in a warm place and your bag is as tight as a scotsmans sporran.it has solved many a problem for me.slan slan,allan moller

[allan moller]

hi leaky bag pipers,apparently my link is coming up dead.google original bag pipe seasoning robertsons et al and you will get there.i have no commercial interest in this product but it works really well.if the manufactures would like to grease my palm with any spare spondulicks that they have i would be overjoyed but as things like that do not happen in my miserable life i still endorse the product.yours existentially,allan.

[allan moller]

in reply to geoff woof whom i admire immensely.geoffrey,leaky bags can be made good despite all the initial faults that you described.it was the fail safe of all the old pipers to frequently season their bags to maintain a steady air flow.i have never come across a bag that never needed some sort of seasoning during it's playing life albeit,latex,or other older methods of the remedy.pipers tend to get used to their leaky sets and that includes all air leaks and there are many and will adjust their playing pressure of their reeds to suit the deficient air loss of their pipes.a perfect set of pipes is perfectly air tight with reeds set at that pressure but,hey, how many sets are like that?pipers,we have to learn how to maintain and play our own sets as to how we like them but the first rule is to have an airtight bag.enough said or i am going to get bounced off this thread for being a boring pedant.anyway,geoff woof pipemaker grande,you can fix a bad bag.molto respect mon ami.allan.

[CHasR]

every *single* time Ive tried to "season" an UP bag, its gone drastically wrong;... meticulously, explicitly, following the given directions...even with (especially with) concoctions folks claim are "safe, intended for bellows bags", etc, etc, etc...Its just asking for trouble, Geoff is spot on, & unfortunately I have to say, were I in those shoes again, I'd spring for a new bag without a 2nd thought. Pictures for rumination:






I vowed it would be the last time, when i stuck my bag in the freezer overnite, and bashed the frozen seasoning crumbs out of it the next morning, vacuming them up until they melted to room temp again..then re froze it & repeated...for 5 consecutive nights to get most of the gunk out

[allan moller]

once a bag is completely airtight the only other considerations are the tying in,hemping,key pads,corking and very occasionally i have come across a soft wood used for the stock which has activally leaked air to a significant degree in such cases varnish is the answer(i will mention no names).where do we go from here tyro pipers?i can only give you the advice i was given over 35 years ago by the pupils of ennis,clancy,o'flynn etc.and that is to learn how to look after your own set and to make your own reeds.you have to know how to make your own set play the way you like it,nobody else can do that for you anything else and you are a slave to your reeds instead of being the master of your set,there is no other way if want to be a self sufficient and comfortable piper.i know it sounds intimidating but once you get to grips with maintaining and reeding your own pipes then you are well down the road to being a real piper.i wish all of you the very best and hope you all find the way forward it took me a long time but it was worth it,the road is long but he ain't heavy he's my chanter.and dont forget the clack valves belows and bag hugely important and much overlooked.

[myrddinemrys]

I used a concoction comprising of Knox gelatin, water, glycerine and essential oils. The essential oils are an essential, as the gelatin will make you think something died. It's pig-matter, so I guess something did die . . .
Anyways, I hear bone glue doesn't smell as bad as gelatin.

A recipe could be found here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... unofficial


If you go this route, work quickly when you decide to "pour in".

[Hans-Joerg]

Andreas Rogge sells and sends the ready boneglue-glycerine-essential oil-mixture
http://www.uilleann-pipes.de/english/index.html
click <prices> and then <accessory>
and gives instructions about how to seal a (any) bag <service>

[geoff wooff]

In response to Alan Moller;

Alan, I do not agree that all bags can be made 'air tight' . Some work is of diminishing returns.

I made my own bags for more than 20 years ( about 160 of them) including the one I have used on my own set since 1980... that is a lot of hand sewing;.. and I have sometimes performed that arduous 4 hour task only to throw the bag in the bin... ususally due to the leather being porous or the fibres pulling appart around the stitch holes.

One of the most important operations when making a bag is to first visit the Leather supplier (or tannery) and select the hides... I know they hate you doing this.... search through the stacks of hides untill you find a type that feels right (thickness, flexibility, tightness of grain structure) and then examine the whole surface and 'suck' test it ... suck hard on the shinny surface.. any feeling of pourosity ? Reject it! FIND the AIR TIGHT skins....!!

Since begining to purchase bags from Jackie Boyce I have ,on rare occasions, returned a bag that was not holding Wind after seasoning. Once a new bag has passed my " inflate it fully and sit on it for five minutes" test , it usually goes on to hold Wind for its lifetime, albeit perhaps needing a re-seasoning after a good few years

I make expensive instruments and send them to the four corners of the globe, and the last thing I want is one of them coming back to me with a fault. There are now 210 Wooff sets 'out there'.. if each one of those developed a fault, say every four years, causing the set or parts of it to be returned to me for repairs... well that is one set per week arriving chez moi ...... I'd never get any work done on new sets if that was the case!

When I get a puncture in my bicycle wheel I will repair it at the road side but I'll replace the inner tube at my earliest convenience.... as was the case in the old days when cars had tires with inner tubes.

But, of course, I agree Alan, that there are many other possible leak sites on a set of UP's and all must be dealt with positively... the porous stocks sealed with Varnish... from the Inside if possible.

I recall one hopefull piper who had poured hot beeswax over the front end of his mainstock, whilst all the drones and regs were in place, to try to stem a leak which was caused by some of the socket holes being oval... this due to extreme age (both of the set and the piper).... This is like trying to staunch a leaking head gasket on your car's engine by lathering several tubes of Epoxy cement around the joint, from the outside.... this I have also witnessed....
Best regards,
Geoff.

[BzzzzT]

A friend of mine used a Murphy's Oil Soap bag seasoning mixture and he told me it worked fine for him. This was over 9-10 years ago, so I don't know how successful it was long term, as I did not get a chance to follow up. I checked my notes and this is what I had written down.

Murphy's Oil Soap bag seasoning

3 parts Murphy's Oil Soap
1 part Crisco

You heat it in the microwave and pour it in your bag.

How much is your time worth? If I was in the same position, I would buy a new bag. I really can't make an informed comment as I have no experience sealing a bag. My current favorite are Jackie Boyce bags. I used their standard uilleann template. When I received the bag it was so airtight and pliable, that just the neck casually flopping over held air in the bag!

http://www.pipebagmaker.com/products/10-uilleann.aspx


- Jason

[allan moller]

hi geoff,we'll call it a draw then.i recently reeded a narrow bore d chanter of your manufacture and it was superb,best ever.best regards,allan.

[Brazenkane]

Thanks to everyone who contributed. I will end up replacing the bag, but I'm also willing to try seasons together a wee bit more time out if it.

[geoff wooff]

hi geoff,we'll call it a draw then.i recently reeded a narrow bore d chanter of your manufacture and it was superb,best ever.best regards,allan.

Glad you liked it Allan, thems NBD's can be tricky... but then you know what you are at.


Geoff.