When I started working with the ReeDuAl machine eighteen months ago, I quickly realized that my previous twenty years of reed making was due for a radical change. No longer would I make a moderately heavy reed blank (whether by file and knife and easel, or by blade-type profiler) but I would have a fairly finished reed that I could immediately actually play on with reasonable comfort. Of course some touch-up is always necessary while a reed is breaking in, as the cane must "calm down" after changing from the natural tube condition to the new contorted reed shape; that is, from the original shape, the cane is cut, scraped, gouged, sanded, pressed, squeezed, and even choked, to form the basis of bassoon tone, and like all organic things, it takes a while to get adjusted.
Using a previously successful reed as a model, (a reed which I had used for some twenty to thirty concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the type of reed I would gladly pay $10 each for,) I soaked the reed, dismantled the two blades, chose the best balanced of the two, and after drying it, placed it on the template bed of the ReeDuAI as a model for future reeds. The ReeDuAI works like a key copying machine. That is, it copies, by means of a sanding drum the exact contours of the model on to the new piece of cane. After making two blades, it is only necessary to put them together to have a playing reed. The quality of the model, the careful technique of binding the two separate blades, and the fineness of the cane, (naturally) determine the success of the reed.
At present a mere ten minutes will produce a nicely functioning reed. While there are a number of little tricks one learns when making reeds the ReeDuAI way, I have found this the short-cut to alleviating "bassoon-reed-trauma".