customizing reeds

[E.L. The Sax]

i just started to work on my cane and plastic reeds. the guy at the store showed me the basic hand motion i should use when working on my reeds and picked the right knife for my reeds. i use traditional vandoren(blue box) 2 for alto and traditional vandoren 2 1/2 for my bari sax. i also have plastic BARI reeds, hard for alto and soft for bari. this is my first time using reeds other than cane, i think i would've bought hard or medium for bari but soft was the only one they had left(i was deperate). my question is how and what should i do to make my reeds work better? what should i do with my reed knife? and what the hell is warping?
-E.L. the sax

[Dave Dolson]

E.L.: I do not "work" plastic reeds like the Bari brand.

With cane reeds, I use the edge of a sharp blade and scrape a little bark off the vamp trying to make sure I don't go too far on the edge or tip. I do this on new reeds that I am prepping and sorting for storage in a reed guard. I can make most reeds play by uising this process.

I have sanded some synthetic reeds (like Fibracells) and that turned out okay, too.

Warping is when a wet reed dries out and the tip curls, making the tip look like it is made of corrugated metal, not flat cane. The curled tip will probably smooth out after you wet the reed again. Of course, if your wet reeds are stored without being placed in a reed guard (or held flat by some other method), the warping could become so bad that the tip splits, thus rendering the reed usleless. DAVE