Another Cane source?

[bobkeenan]

I was rummaging around the internet the other day and came across Arundo Reeds and Cane.

http://www.arundoreeds.com/index.htm

And they are about a 45 min drive from here in Portland, OR!!

They sell bassoon cane but its 1" diam in lengths of 6-12 inches. i think I have read that bassoon cane can be very hard but you can order it in several different hardness levels.

Anyone ever use their cane? i think I will order some soft cane and check it out.

[an seanduine]

I believe it was Anthony Baines, in his book Bagpipes, who quoted Billy Pigg, discussing a reed he had made from a match box (pine? Deal?)
"A reed can be made of owt".
I don't make reeds.
I have made reeds.
In the eighties, the very first reed I made that sort of worked, was made from Bassoon Cane.
David Daye pretty much only uses Bassoon cane.

Bob

[Ted]

There is cane of various degrees of hardness. Bassoon players like harder cane for their wet-blown reeds. David Daye has used Rigotti cane, as do many GHB reed makers. It is the softest of the European cane. I have also sold cane to Mr. Daye, so he does not only use bassoon cane. Many bassoon players find Rigotti cane too soft for their reeds. The only reason any cane is called bassoon cane is the diameter. Bassoon reeds are made from 25mm or 1" diameter cane. As Mr. Daye and some GHB reed makers make reeds from 25mm cane it could also be called bagpipe cane. There is no bassoon, oboe, sax or clarinet cane per se, only cane of varying degrees of hardness and various diameters sold for different instruments reeds. It is the sellers who call it bassoon or whatever cane, as they sell it primarily for these instruments. Many order 25mm cane from me as that is what is available from those selling cane for other instruments. I sell cane by diameters, as different methods require different diameters to make uilleann pipe reeds.

Arundo Reeds is selling 25mm (bassoon) cane in various degrees of hardness. They charge $2.50 per tube for cane selected by hardness. You can buy Rigotti cane for around $1.00 per tube from other sources. I will contact Arundo Reeds to see what they are using to determine the hardness they list and also ask them for the source of their soft cane. I am willing to bet it is Rigotti and can be had for much less money than sold by Arundo Reeds. Some of my cane is softer than Rigotti and some of it is harder. I will try to obtain what they are using to test cane hardness and test the cane I have available. It would be instructive to know how my cane compares.

[DMQuinn]

I believe it was Anthony Baines, in his book Bagpipes, who quoted Billy Pigg, discussing a reed he had made from a match box (pine? Deal?)
"A reed can be made of owt". ...

Telephone game.

Back a generation: it was Tom Clough. Baines quoted William Cocks reporting Tom Clough saying "ye can make a reed of owt." p.130.
Words to live by.

[Lorenzo]

I was rummaging around the internet the other day and came across Arundo Reeds and Cane.

http://www.arundoreeds.com/index.htm

What a coincidence, Bob! I was just telling a friend of yours in Portland about this place...and that he should check it out. Eubanks (before he sold the company), use to grow cane outside of Portland, He supplied another bassoonist in Ashland OR with some roots (Rhyzomes) where he said some of the best patches of arundo donax was grown. If you go to the History link on that page, it mentions Kirsten Boldt--bassoonist and teacher at CWU in Ellensburg--who has written extensively about the plant, and who is currently growing some near the U as an experiment. Just got an email from her a coupla days ago and she was terribly excited to see arundo donax growing here in the WW Valley - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBbqk28 ... _VPYLJx1vA

Arundo Reeds and Cane says hardness is measured on a scale from 7 to 20 using a density gauge. The procedure bassoon reed makers have used for testing cane hardness is described in the following link. Some use a spring loaded probe on the inner surface. Others use a Rockwell Superficial Hardness Tester, which has a diamond cone indenter. http://koppreeds.com/virtues.html#section7

PGE, in NE Oregon, is planting arundo donax by the hundreds of acres. The first crop was harvested--swathed and bailed--a couple of years ago. You can find wild cane growing just across the border from Ashland and Klamath by studying the CalWeed Mapper site. Whether any of the soft California gold is growing that far north is yet to be determined. I plan to make an exploratory trip this winter. I had no idea arundo donax was so widespread... http://calweedmapper.cal-ipc.org/maps/? ... &species=3

[Ted]

Thanks for the info. Larry. I have seen cane growing in So. Oregon. Good luck in your search. I have found only a few areas produce soft cane in California. There is mostly hard cane. It seems soil is the main ingredient in producing soft cane. I could fill a shipping container with hard cane which is within 40 miles from where I live. Some may actually like it. Instead, I travel over 100 miles to an area that produces soft cane. Not all the cane I harvest is soft from the same stand. The thumb nail test is good for field testing cane. I find the dunk test to be a good indicator of hardness. The higher the specific gravity, or the more it sinks in the dunk test. The soft cane only sinks about 45%. Harder cane sinks more than 50%, even up to 60%.

A Rockwell hardness tester is available to me. I find it to yield varying results on the same slip of cane. Perhaps a Burnell hardness tester may yield more consistant results. It consists of an about 1/4"steel ball to which a know weight is applied and the resulting indentation is measured for depth of penetration. This tests a much greater area than the diamond point employed by the Rockwell device. There appear to be narrow soft and hard areas on cane. Tests with this yield a range of results as the tested area is very small. A larger area should be tested for more consistant readings.

[Ted]

I called Arundo Reeds and Cane. They use a hardness tester of the Brinell type with a ball, made by Rolf Potratz. To test the cane it must first be gouged as it is tested on the gouged side. A Rockwell tester is unsuitable for testing cane for the reason I wrote about above. They may be able to pick out soft cane from their supplies. They primarily buy cane from Prestini which is rather hard in general.

[Lorenzo]

It seems soil is the main ingredient in producing soft cane.

This may be one of those "donax don't tell" moments, but I'm curious if the cane is extra soft for lack of minerals and nutrients...or too much, acid/alkaline balance in soil, too much sunlight or not enough, high/low water available, slope/no slope, gravel/sand present, moderate climate year around, or other contributing factors we may not know or completely understand (genetics?).

Along with the thumbnail, I particularly like the "stab" test with an exacto knife.