[Mark Fleming]

Milandro,

Your video shows a type of whip finish that is used for attaching guides to fishing poles (and making bamboo flutes) where the desired look is a single wind of thread. For using string or thread on a woodwind neck, looks aren't that important, bulk is. And keeping the sting in place, even if a strand is broken or worn through is important. What is used in that case is a series of running half hitches, as is commonly done when tying flies for fishing. This video shows how it is done for a single half hitch using a special tool.

I learned this technique without using a tool. Several half hitches were used when finishing a fly. In fact, sometimes the entire body of the fly was created by silk thread windings on the hook. Wind 3-4 times, then a half hitch, then more winds, etc. That way, even should the lure get chewed on by a fish many times, it didn't come unravelled. The same technique works for a thread neck "cork."

Mark

 

[Mark Fleming]

When I was buying old clarinets, the ones that had wooden mouthpieces in the case usually had silk thread windings instead of cork. At first I thought that it was just a indication of the times or maybe a lack of funds, but I later realized that it served a dual purpose. The tenons on the old clarinet were generally corked, so it wasn't that cork wasn't available. I figured that a silk binding was used on wood mouthpieces instead of cork because it also would help prevent the wooden mouthpiece from splitting, something that a band of cork couldn't do. I did see that several of the clarinet tenons were also wound with string if they didn't have a metal ring, and it may be that string served a dual purpose on the tenons as well.

Mark

 

[Mark Fleming]

My first boats were wooden, and boat repair at the time used various impregnated fibers that had to stand up to moisture and abuse. Hemp, flax, sisal, jute, oakum, are all vegetable fibers. They were usually treated with something (tar, tallow, oil, wax, etc.), to increase the water proofing, but the general idea was that these fibers were the most impervious to moisture and rotting. That's not to say that they wouldn't harbor bacteria, just that certain types of fibres weren't susceptible to rot. I was always amazed by the continued use in the modern day of waxed jute as a propeller shaft packing material. Delrin, Teflon, and other miracle synthetics are all available, yet jute coated in pig fat was still the packing of choice. Hundreds of hours of a spinning propeller shaft and salt water, and you had to renew the rope ever 5 or 10 years. Amazing.

Silk might have been chosen for woodwinds because it is a little slipperier than some of the vegetable fibers. It also can be made into a thinner thread for finesse work. And it doesn't swell very much when wet, which might be good.

I would recommend a silk/bamboo mixture. It would just have to produce an exotic tone on a sax. And you could treat the thread with an exotic oil, like cinnamon, lemon grass, or thyme. Not only do these essential oils sound good, but they have antibacterial properties and even kill things like flu, pneumonia, and E.coli germs. Cork can't do that.

I see a new FlemTone product. And my Martin needs new cork (or a FlemTone Exoticrook sealing system).

Mark

 

[Mark Fleming]

This thread should be a sticky.

No. The thread has to be slippery or the mouthpiece will not slide on. Yuk yuk.

I've only messed with thread until I replaced it with cork, but it seems that there would be a downside. The thread that I've seen is for clarinet mouthpiece A to fit clarinet A, or for clarinet A upper section to fit clarinet A lower section. No need for clarinet A upper section to fit any other clarinet. For the fickle saxophonist who has several mouthpieces, greased cork offers a larger range of options for mouthpieces. I'm not saying that's a good thing, in fact, I've mentioned the amount of time that I have wasted switching mouthpieces. I might not do that if switching mouthpieces also required adding or removing string for different mouthpieces. I know that I have sold mouthpieces specifically because they had a larger/smaller than "normal" shank bore, even though they play as well as others in my collection.

Sting requires monogamy and cork is for the promiscuous?

Mark