Walter's Woodwind Shop

My good friend Chris Howard over at Howard Woodwind Company did an amazing job of helping me refine my tone hole replacing skills. I did four on a junk joint. By the fourth time I remembered to take pictures:-) It's a fun process!

I couldn't quite find the right way to hold dent rods in my vise in a way that would handle the downward force sometimes required. I found these awesome aluminum jaws (that are originally for holding gun barrels, apparently?), and because I don't own a mill (yet?), after hours with a drill press and multiple hand files, I finally had a set that wraps around the jaws and DON'T move at all, even when I put my body weight on the rod.

Recently had a pretty nasty pair of cracks on my bench. I took my time on this one, and I think it turned out pretty well.

A customer recently came in with clarinets that had not been looked at for years. The level of tarnish was extreme. It’s possible they have extra sweat or extra salt or acid in their skin that exacerbated things. Unfortunately, buffing with a wheel would have taken more of the plating off than I wanted to risk, so most of this had to be done by hand and with a silicone polishing Dremel wheel held in my bench motor (for slower speeds). However, after about 10 hours of work, this was the result!

I’ve spent the last five months slowly working on disassembling, cleaning, oiling/greasing, reassembling, and adjusting/tightening this Central Machinery lathe I inherited from my grandpa. ...now just have to learn how to use it!

'TIS THE SEASON FOR CRACKS
Having your clarinet crack is a difficult, frustrating, and scary situation, but before you yell at your repair technician or demand your money back from the person who sold it to you, know that it’s not the end of the world. The good news is, once the crack is repaired, if repaired well, the tone of the clarinet may not be affected at all (in some cases, it is improved!).

Depending on where you are living, now is the season for cracking. Cracking happens most often when there is a rapid change in temperature or humidity. Any time the outside of the clarinet is colder or drier than the inside, it might crack. For example, going from a dry, heated environment like most houses during the winter, to being blown into by warm, moist air. A final example would be taking a warm instrument immediately out into winter weather in a poorly insulated case. In all three examples, the inside of the instrument is expanded, while the outside of the instrument is contracted, and it cracks to relieve that pressure. The most common place for clarinets to crack is where the wood is already weakened, like where holes are drilled through it. Check between throat G # and A, as well as between the top two side/trill keys. Look closely, a crack can be thin as a hair, or may resemble the wood grain. Anything that looks at all suspicious should be checked out by a qualified repair technician. Sometimes, it really is just wood grain.

As a player and a technician, I am obsessive/paranoid about my clarinets cracking. The following are the steps I take to avoid cracking.

If the instrument is cold, I warm it with my hands or my armpits for several minutes before I play, especially the upper joint and barrel. If it is very cold (like I just walked outside with it on my back in -15° Wisconsin weather), I will leave it with the case closed for an hour, then open for another hour to let it gradually warm up to room temperature before I even touch it with my hands. Like I said, cracking is caused by rapid changes. Even in a worst-case scenario, a clarinet that was shipped to me came off the FedEx van feeling every bit as cold as the 1° air outside, it was crack-free after a night inside with the case closed.

Use humidifiers or orange peels CONSTANTLY during the winter months. If they look even slightly dry, re-wet/replace them. I saturate mine, then wrap them around my fingers to wring them out, then wipe off any excess. They can touch the outside of the instrument, but never put them inside the bore (again, this would cause the inside to expand while the outside stays dry). I sell pre-made humidifiers, so PM me if you need some! In the meantime, simply stuffing a clean piece of sponge into a pill bottle with holes drilled in it would suffice. I go as far as to put a hygrometer (dial humidity gauge) from a cigar shop in the case and try to keep it above 60%.

If any of the rings are loose, or if a joint is suddenly very tight, STOP. This is a sign that the clarinet is not humidified enough. It creates an environment for cracking when the tenon is pushed into the thin, un-reinforced socket wall (you thought those rings were just for decoration, didn’t you?). If more humidity doesn’t tighten the rings, they may need to be tightened. Most repair technicians have equipment to do this, or they may add a tiny piece of paper as a shim if the ring is loose enough to remove (you can do this as well, if you feel up to it). But try humidity first! Over-tightening rings can cause other problems when the weather warms up again.

Swab religiously, like every 10 minutes. When I pack up, I dry off the tenon ends, and even use a q-tip to dry the inside of the socket ends. I also plug the end of the top joint and blow out while opening all of the keys one at a time. This shows me which ones have collected water. I repeat using a piece of cloth or cigarette paper under the offending pads to absorb water from the tone holes.

In the winter I use a room humidifier where I keep my instrument.
In spring and summer, you can remove the humidifiers as long as the rings stay tight and the clarinet is not in excessively air conditioned buildings all of the time. This is why I use the hygrometer; even in the summer a clarinet can dry out indoors, and I want to know when it does.

IF YOUR INSTRUMENT CRACKS:
-Trace the crack with a pencil. This will help the repair technician if it closes up (see below).
-If you can, avoid playing on it until you can get it fixed. If you don’t have access to a backup instrument, play on the cracked instrument as little as possible.
-You should still keep it as humidified as possible until then. You may notice the crack will shrink a bit as it gets more moisture. This is a good thing.
-Take the clarinet to a reputable repair technician as soon as possible.
-Being a natural substance, if wood wants to crack, it eventually will, no matter how careful you are (or if you play oboe🙃). You could be doing everything right, but something as simple as someone opening a door and a cool breeze coming through could cause a crack. It is an unfortunate hazard of our profession, but using the above strategies, I survived two winters in Chicago, and two more in New York City, with zero cracks.

Quick tip for clarinetists (and those who got clarinets for Christmas): I have seen many books and band directors tell students to hold the bottom and top joints where there are fewer keys, because you will be at less of a risk of bending keys. This is NOT correct! The longest keys are the low E/B keys, and the side trill keys. At the bottom, any accidental contact with the bottom rod while twisting can bend it. At the top, the trill keys can bend AND because of their length, the pad cups move easily. If you grab them and twist? I can't tell you how many times I've seen torn pads in the top two side keys, and of course they affect how the entire clarinet plays!

What do I do? I look for places where the keys are MEANT to be pressed, and places where the keys are bolted down. Generally, this is where your hands go, where the finger holes are. It may not be comfortable, but it's safe. And grease your corks! You shouldn't have to twist that hard anyway. However, if it's excessively loose or tight after greasing, you probably need to come have me replace the corks or sand them down.

WWS knows how to brand in style.

My good friend and colleague Jose García Taborda's barrel did not survive the crazy Wisconsin weather. Luckily, all of the cracks were on the surface, and I could make relatively short work of it. Not a perfect job, but it seals, looks pretty good, and plays great!

I needed a relatively cheap and reliable way to check for light leaks with uneven tone holes on this sax. Luckily, I was able to find some opaque acrylic discs of various diameters that work fantastically! I am selling sets of these as well, from 3/4" to 2", which cover every tone hole up to a low Bb on tenor saxophone. You can glue or tape sandpaper to these as well (Klingspor makes an 800-grit self-adhesive abrasive). PM me if you're interested! I'm working on a project to add magnets and pilots for sanding tone hole rims, but I need to do some R&D, first.

I got this guy for $25 on Facebook marketplace. The seller was charging $50, but when I told her I wanted to fix it up, she said, "You can have it for $25, as long as I get to see the final product!" Now, I just have to find the time for a project like this! This was after I gave it a chemical dip, which did very little to remove the tarnish. I see a lot of ragging in my future.

Working hard this week at the Midwest Clinic!

Hello, everyone! I'm going to be doing free diagnostics and small repairs (until I run out of supplies) at the The Midwest Clinic Band and Orchestra Conference this week at McCormick Place in Chicago. This is Walter's Woodwind's first "public appearance." Stop by the booth for Lisa's Clarinet Shop and come say hi! I'll be there Wednesday the 15th through Friday the 17th, roughly the whole time (9am-5pm). :-)

Between this, a HEPA air filter that cycles the air in my shop every 15 minutes, and a UVC light box, I am able to keep my space and the instruments I work on extremely sanitary.

I found this pair of wire cutters at a garage sale this weekend for $1. The mechanism is interesting, and the jaws can be adjusted or possibly replaced. The side of the cutters say, "L.S. Starrett Co. Althol Mass USA." I looked closer at the top of the jaws and they say "Music Wire"! I checked with a piano technician I know, and he confirmed that they are used to cut piano wire, and new ones are almost $500! Unfortunately, vintage ones are only worth ~$50, but hey, $49 profit. I'll be hanging on these, either way.

I drew these out on my phone to explain to a client what tuning rings are and how they work. I was so impressed with how clearly and effectively they turned out, given to how terrible they look, that I thought I would post them here.

Did a repad on this Selmer Centered-Tone clarinet. Also cleaned up the keys and replaced the tenon corks. It gets a nice, big sound, but the age of the instrument made intonation a little wonky. Hopefully the next one I get will be after I've had a little more experience undercutting.

This is an Evette & Schaeffer I finished a little while back. I love how an instrument looks when the keys are clean, the logos are refilled, and the case is vacuumed. I included one of my own homemade humidifiers (which I also sell separately), something I typically do with wood instruments. My first wood clarinet was an Evette & Schaeffer, so this horn has a special place in my heart.

One of the more unique paper towel holders I've seen:-) I actually just swapped this out for something more functional, but maybe someday I'll challenge myself to get that thing into ANY kind of playing condition.

One of my favorite things to do is refill logos so that the clarinet looks almost brand new. This one, though, was tricky. The logo had been so worn, there wasn't a lot to go by. I had to freehand etch it, but I think I did an okay job:-) (I'm thinking of offering a buy-one-get-one for this kind of work. I'd call it a .)

This was an interesting project. A "Benetone" with articulated G #, and some other extra keys and tone holes you don't normally see. It was tricky getting the hole in the center cork the right size to vent the note completely, but not be so wide that it catches all of the cork grease like the previous iteration did. It was a great learning experience, but the final result turned out well!

Soon-to-be business card design.

Hello! After learning clarinet, flute, and saxophone repair for the past year and a half, I am opening my shop in Madison, Wisconsin. Message me to set up an appointment (or just to say "hi").