The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #93141 Message #1790404
Posted By: GUEST,Rowan
23-Jul-06 - 12:49 AM
Thread Name: Hot concertina blues
Subject: RE: Hot concertina blues
When restoring/repairing instruments or, indeed, anything of value, the best advice is to do nothing that is irreversible and to minimise the nature of your actions to only 'what is required'. Wax used for mouting reeds is a high-melting-point wax. The melting pt is sufficiently high that it stays solid in the sorts of routine temperatures the instrument is likely to be exposed when it is being "cared for" while playing and being stored. To remove a reed frame from the block needs only a warmed blade to be run around the joint. It doesn't even need to be particularly sharp as there is no need for mechanical action, only thermal action. Ditto when replacing the reed frames on the block(s).
Applying glue when the original medium was wax is unnecessarily aggressive and likely to be ineffective unless the glue is compatible with the wax that has penetrated into the timber of the blocks. Most glues that would be efffective would be far too aggressive (in that they're likely to be that much more difficult to reverse) for what is required.