Scraping an oboe reed

This is the fourth reed in a group of five where I demonstrate how to put the finishing touches on a reed to make it usable. This reed was different than the previous three in that there is a critical error with it! As you'll see, the windows were scraped too high on the reed which caused the opening to be too big and the pitch to be too flat. By the end, I got it close, and it became a very nice sounding practice reed, but it would probably not be ideal for performance. Many people use pencil markings on their blanks to quickly draw in where the windows and tip will start, and maybe that could have helped me on this!

Pencil markings are lightly drawn in the oboe reed. — Many reed makers quickly draw in pencil markings. The top two markings are where my tip usually starts and the bottom two are where the windows usually are.

Oboe reed with windows too high up. — The windows on this reed are too far up, which makes the heart shorter. The makes the reed go flat and the opening too big.

With that being said, you should still keep some extra reeds with openings that are either too small or large in your reed case because the weather could always change. Weather changes can affect the openings of your reeds, so it's good to have options! If you want to download a PDF of my reed measurements and reed making instructions, check out this post here.

If you want to check out my Day 1 scraping, check out this video here.