Andrew Watson
2012-11-25 08:03:05 UTC
Hi everyone,
I just found your discussion group and would like to get an opinion on reed wax. I found a heavily abused 48 base 3/4 reed 1960's accordion that I would like to practice repairing. One of the repairs will be derusting the reeds and restoring the leathers. Likely the end product will need tuning, but from what I gather, the tuning is largely a function of intact leathers, clean reeds, and proper waxing of the reed blocks. I would like to make my own reed wax as I have large quantities of beeswax and pine rosin available from my family beekeeping business. Researching prior discussions in this forum I find many different recipes as well as recommendations that using the wrong mixture could adversely affect sound quality (not a major issue on this instrument).
A summary of previously suggested recipes follows:
Pietro Deiro is quoted to "use one part bee's wax + 1/8 Linseed oil + 1/4 rosin then heat slowly until it smokes ...."
another recipe uses "4 ounces of beeswax, 2 ounces fiddle rosin, then heat, and when mixed well, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil."
One contributor's formula "learned from Gordan Pietanesi (Columbo & Sons
Accordion in San Francisco) was 2/3 part beeswax to 1/3 part rosin."
Another from "Accordion Repairs Made Easy" by John Reuter, lists the following
ingredients: equal parts of beeswax and rosin, plus "a few drops of linseed
oil or lanolin."
In another recipe 'Alfred Fisher lists the ingredients as beeswax with 5% rosin and 10% glycerin."
Neil at Hobgoblin Crawley suggests 2/3 beeswax,1/3 rosin (light colour is best) and some drops of linseed oil,there is also a few drops of a secret ingredient but this is not necessary
Ike says: To make wax it's best to have clear pine rosin and beeswax that has not been overheated during production by the vendors. melt the rosin and stir in the wax and then heat to 250 deg. Fahrenheit. add small amount of olive oil
glycerin or motor oil and stir
Most of these recipes have a 3:2 ratio of beeswax to rosin, though they range from 1:1 to 9:1. They also vary significantly in amount and type of oil used.
In beekeeping, hive bodies are hot dipped in paraffin wax with pine rosin added as essentially a plastic to make the paraffin more durable. I think that rosin in reed wax may give a hard plastic property to reduce brittleness and possibly improve adhesion. I would guess that the oil inhibits the drying/hardening of beeswax. Any thoughts on this?
Does anyone want to comment on their results when comparing different ratios of these ingredients? If the contributors who suggest that the "wrong ratio" will adversely affect sound quality are correct, it seems there must be a lot of instruments with poor sound due to reed wax ...... or is this not so important?
Oh, and is there a proper temperature for the instrument to get the best flow control?
Thanks, Andrew
I just found your discussion group and would like to get an opinion on reed wax. I found a heavily abused 48 base 3/4 reed 1960's accordion that I would like to practice repairing. One of the repairs will be derusting the reeds and restoring the leathers. Likely the end product will need tuning, but from what I gather, the tuning is largely a function of intact leathers, clean reeds, and proper waxing of the reed blocks. I would like to make my own reed wax as I have large quantities of beeswax and pine rosin available from my family beekeeping business. Researching prior discussions in this forum I find many different recipes as well as recommendations that using the wrong mixture could adversely affect sound quality (not a major issue on this instrument).
A summary of previously suggested recipes follows:
Pietro Deiro is quoted to "use one part bee's wax + 1/8 Linseed oil + 1/4 rosin then heat slowly until it smokes ...."
another recipe uses "4 ounces of beeswax, 2 ounces fiddle rosin, then heat, and when mixed well, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil."
One contributor's formula "learned from Gordan Pietanesi (Columbo & Sons
Accordion in San Francisco) was 2/3 part beeswax to 1/3 part rosin."
Another from "Accordion Repairs Made Easy" by John Reuter, lists the following
ingredients: equal parts of beeswax and rosin, plus "a few drops of linseed
oil or lanolin."
In another recipe 'Alfred Fisher lists the ingredients as beeswax with 5% rosin and 10% glycerin."
Neil at Hobgoblin Crawley suggests 2/3 beeswax,1/3 rosin (light colour is best) and some drops of linseed oil,there is also a few drops of a secret ingredient but this is not necessary
Ike says: To make wax it's best to have clear pine rosin and beeswax that has not been overheated during production by the vendors. melt the rosin and stir in the wax and then heat to 250 deg. Fahrenheit. add small amount of olive oil
glycerin or motor oil and stir
Most of these recipes have a 3:2 ratio of beeswax to rosin, though they range from 1:1 to 9:1. They also vary significantly in amount and type of oil used.
In beekeeping, hive bodies are hot dipped in paraffin wax with pine rosin added as essentially a plastic to make the paraffin more durable. I think that rosin in reed wax may give a hard plastic property to reduce brittleness and possibly improve adhesion. I would guess that the oil inhibits the drying/hardening of beeswax. Any thoughts on this?
Does anyone want to comment on their results when comparing different ratios of these ingredients? If the contributors who suggest that the "wrong ratio" will adversely affect sound quality are correct, it seems there must be a lot of instruments with poor sound due to reed wax ...... or is this not so important?
Oh, and is there a proper temperature for the instrument to get the best flow control?
Thanks, Andrew