Before you begin, you should soak some gouged, shaped, and profiled cane in warm water for at least three hours. While the cane is soaking, make sure you have all of the tools you'll need to start making reeds.
A lot of the tools are wicked expensive, but you don't need to sell your house to make a healthy looking reed. I'll give the poor man's alternative for each tool:
- reamer (or round file) as the title suggests, it's used to ream out the reed. to save on tools, i usually just use the reamer as a mandrel.
- mandrel (or nail set) or any thin phallic piece that will fit inside the reed. it's used for shaping the flat reed into a circular one, and it also serves as an extension of the reed so you can work on it without breaking it.
- plaque (or guitar pick) this is used to seperate the blades while scraping the reeds so you don't crack or break the cane by accident, which i am notorious for.
- reed knife (or pocket/jack knife) i strongly recommend that you go out and buy a real reed knife- scraping the reed is the most delicate part of the process and you wouldn't want to chance having the reed you've been working on for two days to shrivel up and die just because you wanted to save a couple of bucks. i'm still a little bitter about this.
- duco cement. it's the best brand for this project, even if it smells like an asshole.
- drying rack (or you could use a big wooden bristle brush!)
- crochet or button & carpet thread. make sure you get lots of spools in a rainbow of colors!
- razor blades
- scissors
- wet/dry sandpaper (240 and 400)
- #22 soft brass wire
- six-inch ruler
- needle nose pliers