Reed Making
Introduction

Pipe Chanter Reeds

  1. What you require
  2. Shaping the Chanter Reed
  3. Cane Gouge
  4. Reed Blade Former
  5. Reed Staple Cutter
  6. Chanter Reed Staple Roller
  7. Chanter Reed Staple Former
  8. Chanter Reed Assembly Jig

Drone Reeds

  1. What you require
  2. Making the Drone Reed
  3. Diagram Index
  4. Drone Reed Jig

Drone Reed Jig
Purpose: Cutting of drone reed tongue.

  1. The drone reed jig as shown is fairly self explanatory. Any electrical drill stand from one of the larger hardware stores will suffice. The cutting blade support shaft will have to be "tailor made" to meet the requirements of your specific brand of drill stand.
  2. The cutting blade in this apparatus is a single edged dispenser type razor blade as made by Schick, and others. With experience, you will find that such blades will only cut about 3 to 4 reeds before showing signs of cutting edge distortion. The life of your blades can be extended by resetting the blade in your tool to utilize both ends of the cutting edge as well as the middle section.
  3. Below is a diagram of a block of wood cut at 30 degrees angle to promote accurate cutting each time of the reed tongue. Any piece of hard wood will do. A groove must be made along the length of the block to prevent the cane from slipping off the sides. Generally, finger pressure applied on the cane will hold it firmly enough to obviate slipping down the groove. Some reed makers have a block for each bass and tenor reeds. This is optional as the 30 degrees remains the same.
  4. It will take a good deal of practice to make the proper depth of cut but this will come in time.