Sharp cornered reed plates
Hi Kinya. First and foremost, love your HarpTech lessons - I'm waiting for delivery of an ultrasonic cleaner as per your recommendations before I carry on following them - great explanations and easy to follow. Thank you for that! In the meantime, I've got my hands on a Seydel Harmonica Disinfection bag and quite happy with the results.
I've been trying different non-wood based harmonicas because the humidity where I live has led to mold growing on the wooden and bamboo combs and the mixture of mold and sanitiser leads to a disgusting taste in the mouth. As a result, my most recent acquisition is a Hohner MS Meisterklasse 580, which arrived yesterday. It's beautiful to look at, to hold and to play, gliding across the lips like silk - with one caveat - the corners of the reed plates (especially the end of the grooves that the cover plates slot into) are extremely sharp. I have already got a scratched inner lip and a hole in my trouser pocket from them. I know this isn't normal because I've had other models of the MS series and they weren't like this, so I'm putting it down to someone nodding off on the quality control check at Hohner.
Getting to the point - I need to take the cover plates off and grind/sand those corners down to where they're not dangerous, which is where I would be grateful for your suggestions - should I go with sand paper, a nail file maybe, or the small grinder on my dremel? Or maybe something else? The harmonica has such a beautiful finish otherwise, I really don't want it to end up looking like it fell off a cliff.
Thanks Kinya - I'm looking forward to carrying on with your classes.
Hi Kinya,
Thanks for such a speedy reply and the links to the options you suggest. Seeing those jewellers files, I realised I have a very similar narrow round file I bought to sharpen my chainsaw blades (which I haven't got round to doing yet), so I'll test that out tomorrow on an old harmonica that's blown out. If not, I'll give the dremel sanding disk a try. Whichever works best I'll apply to the real thing - it's actually lost a bit of its sharpness (though my thumb is now sore hehe) as I've played it long and hard today.
I'll see if I can get some pics close enough to show the pointy edges.
Thanks again and have a great weekend!
Joel
Joel, remember the two most important things:
- terrific lighting (I prefer 200 foot candles on task). Go outside if you can't hit 200 fc
- magnification (make your harmonica appear as large as a Ford 150)
Your HARPSMITH, Kinya
Kinya, thanks for those last minute pointers - I took your advice and set up a spotlight and magnifying glass before I started - it made it a much easier job!
As for the job itself, I did a test run on an old MS ProHarp - and I'm glad I did! I'd never worked on metal before and for anyone in the same position, BEWARE - I started with the fine side of a metal nail file and took off way more than I expected, initially scouring the reed plate, much as I had feared might happen. I was able to polish the scouring out with a 600 grit sandpaper, so tried another corner directly with that and discovered that even that fine grade sandpaper removed enough metal to do the job.
So, with that lesson learned, I moved on to the Meisterklasse and attacked the sharpest corner with the sandpaper, managing to remove the burr quite easily with mininum effort. The hardest part was getting the sandpaper into the coverplate groove where the sharpest bit was. I did all eight corners while I had the cover plates off, dusted it off with a fine brush, reassembled and polished it up. Now, it is totally harmless and truly a pleasure to play.
Thank you for your advice and your time, it is greatly appreciated. I've taken photos as promised, but can't work out how to paste them on here - I've tried inserting and pasting, but no joy.
I'm not sure if you can really appreciate the difference just looking at it. To the touch it's totally different.
Have a good weekend!
Joel
https://imgur.com/lPFAE3b
https://imgur.com/SHRLW8c
https://imgur.com/Cr8TYDy
OK... I've managed to get URLs created, but still can't get them inserted, so I've just posted the links ;)
Well done Sir! You are hired
Your HARPSMITH, Kinya
Again, thank you!
Hi Jophistan, OUCH!
All the tools you listed are the same I would use to perform this procedure. Specifically:
Post Before/After photos for our readers!
Your HARPSMITH, Kinya