An integral part of any successful oboists’ life is undoubtedly having a ‘good’ reed. When it comes time to start reed making, purchasing your necessary supplies can be very confusing and there will most certainly be questions along the way. If you’re the parent of a student ordering supplies for the first time, we highly recommend you speak with your child’s private teacher first and get their recommendations as to what to order.
The proper edge for a reed knife is a scraping edge and not a cutting edge. This means your knife is going to scrape in only one direction, either right-handed or left-handed. To achieve the proper edge, you must first prepare a burr on the opposite side of the knife, flip it to the scraping side and then hone it.
Preparing the burr requires a coarse sharpening stone, especially if your knife is not new and needs a fair amount of steel to be removed.