Cane mission

August 2017 Reed crime scene

Hey! So I started writing a very long and very boring post about how I'm tweaking my cane/reed process to try to approximate Williams cane.. Oh what's that? Snoring. Yeah, exactly.

Let's cut to the chase. Williams cane is my favorite. It is shaped and profiled completely dry. This stuff doesn't hit water until it's time to form. He might be one of the only people to do it this way, I really have no idea. And though the reeds that result from this process are almost always wonderful, the cane is pretty expensive. Expensive enough that I can't make student reeds from it and keep my prices low. So, I'm trying some of this dry processing, specifically with the shaping. I've got a batch of 5 dry-shaped reeds, soaking in wait for the profiling and forming processes and another 5 blanks formed and drying in wait for their bindings. I'm supposed to be resting up today as I'm home sick, but the reed gods wait for no human. They must be placated! With three different kinds of cane in there - Medir, Gonzales from Pagoola, and some junk cane from my friend in Phoenix that I've been using to test ideas and teach - I'm hoping to get some idea of how it comes out. 

Crossing fingers!

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