How to Wrap Bassoon Reeds with Beeswax
Tools you’ll need:
Pure beeswax
A chisel and mallet (if buying larger blocks of beeswax)
An alcohol lamp
Denatured Alcohol
A lighter
An alcohol lamp stand to hold your beaker
A small vessel
preferably taller than it is wide, with a narrow opening (I recommend a 100ml pyrex beaker. You don’t want to have a wide surface to dip in, or you’ll be melting wax unnecessarily!
Reeds wrapped with cotton thread
Crotchet or embroidery thread works great!
Short golf tees
Knippers or very strong scissors
A flat spot that is safe to get beeswax on
I like to set aside a reusable silicone baking mat. The dried wax is really easy to get off!
Sources for beeswax, how to break up it up and a word to the wise:
I purchased a one pound block of beeswax from a local beekeeper I found after a quick google search of my area. You can also purchase blocks online.
One word to the wise, those one pound blocks are very difficult to break up. You will need a chisel and mallet or hammer and some good ole’ elbow grease to get it broken up into manageable chunks that you can put in your melting vessel of choice.
Staying safe
Before you start, I want to mention that while this process is safer on our lungs and less chemically than the traditional duco cement, you do need to exercise safety while working with melted beeswax. The alcohol lamp stand is surprisingly easy to tip over, and hot beeswax in your lap would likely be a trip to the hospital. Please also be careful in pouring the alcohol into the lamp and wash your hands after handling. Also be careful to not knock the lamp over either as the flame can spread quickly over your workspace or yourself.
Freshly dipped reeds can also drip hot wax. Be sure to not move them above your lap.
Make sure your workspace is a solid desk or counter and that there aren’t young children or pets running around the room.
The fun part
Okay now for the fun stuff!
Make sure you have beeswax in small enough pieces to go in your beaker, either from purchasing smaller pieces or breaking up larger pieces.
Fill your alcohol lamp with enough denatured alcohol so that the string can be submerged, I aim for about 1/3 full.
Place your lamp where you will be working, and light it using your lighter. Adjust the string so that you have a relatively small flame.
Placing your lamp where you’ll work before lighting means you won’t be carrying a lit alcohol lamp around, meaning less chances to knock it over.
Place your stand over the lamp carefully, and fill your beaker with enough beeswax to fully dip the thread of several reeds. On my beaker, I usually aim for just over 3/4 full. Place the beaker on the stand.
The wax will take about 20 minutes to fully melt. While it’s melting, feel free to finish wrapping a couple of reeds, cut golf tees (the next step!) or take a lunch break 🙂
For your golf tees, cut them down to a length that they are able to go in the butt end of the reed just like a mandrel and stay stuck. It may take a bit of a push and twist to get them to stick there.
Once your wax is completely melted and viscous, dip your blank with golf tee inserted into the wax. Make sure to get all the way up to the second wire and coat all of the thread. Set aside standing up on the golf tee. Continue until all reeds are dipped once. You’ll end up with a little army of reeds!
The wax dries fairly quickly, but standing them on the golf tee ensures you won’t get a flat spot on the finished turban
After all reeds have been dipped once, go ahead and dip them again as they will look a little fuzzy with just one coat and set aside standing up to dry. You may need to add more wax to melt, just make sure to keep the level high enough!
After the second coat, the wax will have a bit of a haze to it for a minute or two. This will go away once it’s cooled!
For the golf tees, you can either clean the wax off if you have a heat gun or continue to reuse them with wax on them.
After you’re finished with all of your reeds for that session, go ahead and extinguish your alcohol lamp and keep the wax on the stand to harden. Keeping it there reduces the risk of spilling it transferring it to another spot.
The best part of this method is that your reeds can be clipped and played within a matter of minutes. You don’t have to worry about chemicals in glue or long dry times. Happy bassooning, and let me know in the comments if you’ve tried this method or something similar, I would love to hear from you!
