Yes, fine sandpaper or a reed knife.
There are reed knives that someone can buy but I just use a kitchen knife and I've done the sandpaper as well.
As long as not a great deal of material is taken off the back of the reed it shouldn't matter that much.
The goal is to just flatten the back of the reed by taking off as less material as possible.
As someone uses the reed knife or sandpaper to flatten the back of the reed they might see the areas where the material is being taken off which in my experience is usually around the edges of the reed.
Flattening the back of the reed helps with sealing the reed to the mouthpiece and also reed squeak control.
Also, flattening the back of the reed is not often a do it once and then forget it thing, as sometimes I have to do it more than once at different times in the reeds life in my experience.
Reed wetting and drying and humidity can all affect how straight the back of the reed is.
The back of the reed might be straight as it comes out of the factory but by the time someone actually slaps the reed on their mouthpiece the back of the reed could be any shape due to humidity and or temperature changes etc.
If someone wants to be more precise then they can use a builders level/straight edge and place the reed on that to see how level and straight the back of the reed is and also the builders level/straight edge can be used to see how level and straight the mouthpiece table (where the reed contacts the back part of the mouthpiece) actually is.
Put the reed or mouthpiece on the builders level/straight edge and hold it up to the light to see any small gaps. No gaps = straight.
Someone can go further if they want to with reed balancing.
Robert Kahn On His Lessons With Joe Allard
Reed adjusting? Never saw a book on it worth beans, but that’s mostly what I did with Joe Allard the 2nd year I studied with him.
Joe was really into working on reeds.
Joe recommended hard reeds because there was more wood to work with.
He recommended the Bhosys reed knife, which I got at Manny’s. It’s great. You just sort of roll it away from you to shave a leetle bit of wood at a time.
Joe said not to mess with the heart of the reed – just the sides, from the rails in, maybe a quarter of the way in, so when you were done, you’d still have the middle half untouched.
Joe would put the reed on and blow it – any note – open C# - then twist the mouthpiece a bit, so that one side of the reed would be sealed, and only the other side would vibrate. Then he’d do that to the other side and blow it. One or both sides would sound muffled. That’s the side you start taking some wood off of. The extra wood kept the reed from vibrating. He’d start down near the base of the reed and work up, at a bit of an angle, like this on the right side: / , sort of – staying away from the heart. Stay away from the tip too, he said. It’s already thin there.
He’d take a little wood off one side, maybe both, and then repeat the blowing thing – blow it normal, blow it with one side sealed, then the other one. Once one side sounds as bright as the normal way, leave it alone. Work on the muffled side until it brightens up. Then you’re done.
But as you know, reeds change. You might have to do it again later.
He’d also use the flat side of the reed knife to clean off the flat part of the reed – wet the reed and scrape it on the flat side of the knife to get the accumulated gunk off it.
And if you have to clip a reed, Joe always used the next biggest reed clipper to do it – a tenor reed clipper to clip an alto, a bari reed clipper to clip a tenor reed. I think he used an alto clipper on a clarinet, but I ain’t sure about that.
He’d also unscrew the moving parts of the reed clipper and throw them away – the part you snap on to hold the reed, and the screw thing that moves it up and down. He’d just put the reed where he wanted it, hold it there and clip it, and then repeat the thing with the reed knife.
I can’t tell you how much I dig my Bhosys reed knife. Ask around if you don’t have one. It’s great because it doesn’t dig into the reed, just scrapes off the surface.
Holding the reed up to the light, you can see where it’s thick and where it’s thin.
Generally, when you find the side with too much wood on it, you’ll see it’s dark, irregular. That’s the part you work on. If there’s a light spot on the muffled side, I’d stay away from it until you work on the dark parts.
No breaking in - but keep it clean. Joe didn’t seal his reeds in any way.
Note: You can read more about Joe Allard’s views on reeds at
www.joeallard.org.
