Waxing a Single Reed

[David Lay]

I decided to finally try adjusting a slow-to-sound reed on my Morse ESB.  It was an F natural which I rarely needed, so I procrastinated.  I put off the adjustment because the F reed was below the wax.  After searching the web and experimenting, I found a description of a wax heater that worked very well for me.  The soldering iron is 30 watts, though lower power would be better as I had the control at 20% to keep the temperature at about 180 F.  I used silver solder to attach the 16 oz. copper so that its melt temperature is above the maximum of the iron.  The reed wax was molded into sticks in the sealing wax stick mold.  By touching the wax to the copper, I could control the flow.  The strings of wax on the paper are my practice strips.  Bob Snope's wax looks better than mine, of course, but mine is OK.

Edited January 14, 2025 by David Lay