Editor's Note: Scott Vigder is a young enterprising bassoonist from Los Angeles. His display of reed models at this summer's Columbus IDRS Conference was very interesting and impressive. I liked Scott's method of scoring the tube section of his reeds using a self-designed set of utility blades held as a unit by means of a bolt and screw. He has agreed to describe its method of construction and use.
This device is simple to make and use, and it is accurate. It also requires less time to neatly score the tube section than is required with the usual method of using a conventional single blade knife (x-acto or other). Materials:
1. cut rectangular pieces from the shirt cardboard for each blade you will use plus two more for the outside edges (i.e. 7 pieces for 5 blades, 9 pieces for 7 blades). The cardboard pieces are cut to 1 inch by 3/8 inch rectangular dimension.
2. put a hole through the center of each piece of cardboard. The size of hole should equal the bolt size.
3. put the machine bolt through one cardboard piece; place a utility blade on top of the cardboard (like making lasagna! ED.); then put another piece of cardboard on and another utility blade until you have 5 or 7 blades sandwiched between 7 or 9 cardboard pieces.
4. Secure the assembled scoring knife with the machine nut, but don't tighten it too much (it will be adjusted later).
1. Make a flat bevel on the top surface of one end of the 5 inch dowel piece. For the bevelling, use a fine toothed jig saw, a sanding belt, or a very rough grade of sand paper.
1. After soaking the cane, place a shaped and profiled piece of cane on the scoring easel with the tube half to be scored resting on the flat bevelled end of the easel. Loosen the machine nut so you may press down on the tops of the knife blades until they conform to the curved outer bark surface of the cane; then tighten the bolt so this cutting contour will be maintained.
2. Place the points of the scoring tool at the beginning spot of your scoring and just draw the tool back to the end of the easel with a little bit of downwards pressure. In 2-3 seconds you will have a completely evenly-scored tube section.
(N.B. You may have some difficulty in locating utility blades of this type-with center hole-, so l suggest that you look in the yellow pages of the phone book and phone all the hardware stores in your area until you find a store which carries these blades.) (Editor's Note: I would also suggest that a safety measure be added to the construction of this scorer which will also keep the unused ends of the utility knives in a clean and sharp condition. First wrap the back end blade points with a piece of gauze cloth or linen cloth; then cover the entire back half of the scoring tool with 3/4 inch wide plastic tape. This permits a sure and safer grip on the, tool when using it. And the tape may be removed and the blades reversed when the first set of blade tips becomes dulled.)