Turning a wooden mouthpiece

[BrerCottonmouth]

I thought I'd try my hand at turning a trombone mpc out of wood. Has anyone out there tired this? What kind of wood works best? What steps did you take? How do you prevent cracking? Other tips on care and feeding? Thanks, guys!

[Neo Bri]

I don't know anything, but I believe you'd need to wet-sand it to get the playing surface smooth, since the grain will raise with moisture.

[BGuttman]

Benterfa used a bunch of different woods. I have a Violet Wood one that is approximately 4G size. I had a maple that was around 6.5 AL size and I sold it off. Woods used for clarinets or recorders will work well: Boxwood, Rosewood, Grenadilla, Maple.

I would stay away from Balsa

[LeTromboniste]

As far as I know, wood used for wind instruments needs to be aged and dried quite a bit in order for it to be stable and durable enough. An early music colleague of mine who is one of the top cornett makers has a stockpile of wood that has been aging for several years (some of it for decades). You'll want the hardest and most dense wood you can get. Boxwood is a popular choice for cornetts and recorders. After you work the piece, it should be thouroughly oiled before being ready to use (soaking in oil for a few hours, wiped clean, repeat; until any pores are saturated with oil throughout. That process with instruments can take several days, not sure how long a mouthpiece would take. Alternatively, you can soak it in oil inside a chamber and use a pump or compressor to create a vaccuum, forcing the oil to saturate the wood, which will make it happen much quicker). If it is to last, the mouthpiece will need to be wiped dry after every use, and should be oiled periodically. You shouldn't try to get the shank walls as thin as a brass mouthpiece, or else it won't take long and the edge will start cracking.

Other organic materials can work really well too and need less maintenance than wood. Cow/buffalo/ox horn is great for mouthpieces but they often have lengthwise cracks hidden inside so not all pieces of horns that look big enough on the outside will actually yield a blank large enough for a trombone mouthpiece. I do have an ox horn mouthpiece and it is extremely comfortable on the lips. Ivory is another option - elephant ivory is banned of course (as it should be) but as a result of global warming there are now tens of thousands of mammoth corpses thawing in the tundra and mammoth tusk ivory is now relatively easy to buy (and for the most part legal). I was told by instrument maker friends that it is a great material to work with and makes good mouthpieces - it might not be the easiest thing to travel within the US with, though.


Fun fact: possibly the earliest one-piece trombone mouthpiece turned from a single blank (as opposed to being assembled from a mix of turned parts and sheet brass) is actually wooden!

[Carolus]

Thomann actually offers a bunch of wooden mouthpieces for trombone. I have no idea how they plat but they are inexpensive.

[timothy42b]

You might be better off using a brass tubing shank and just turning the bowl.

If you're really going to use it, you could probably do like clarinet makers do: they use wood, but it is made from sawdust, held together with resin and compressed. So it's more stable and has no grain to worry about.

[TriJim]

Alphorn mouthpieces are traditionally made of wood. Hubert Hense (http://www.alphornbauhense.de/) does custom work and will duplicate a metal mouthpiece in wood if you prefer the product and not the work. Even if you want to make the mouthpiece, he may be an excellent resource for materials and production tips. Contact info on his web page. Or try other alphorn makers if you prefer. I have a dozen wood alphorn mouthpieces and they stand up well to daily use.

[BGuttman]

Benterfa makes a wood bowl with a brass shank. The maple one I sold fell and broke where the bowl part meets the brass part. Needed a repair with Elmer's. Don't know how well it's held up; the guy who bought it from me dropped out of the Community Band and I haven't seen him for a number of years.

Note: if you are going to go into making mouthpieces, be prepared to make an awful lot of duds while you figure out what and why. If you don't mind making a big pile of fire starter, have at it.

[heinzgries]

https://www.facebook.com/Holzmundst%C3% ... _todo_tour

http://www.lignum-tech.de/bildergalerie ... ndstuecke/#

[BrerCottonmouth]

I have access to a lathe, so just wanted to see what it would be like to try turning a mpc out of wood. I doubt a wooden mpc will sound as good as a brass/nickel one, or be as practical. But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm looking for advice on turning one to save me from the usual errors. I'm guessing a seasoned maple branch or sapling, where the grain is concentric and not crosswise, would work best. And I'm assuming a good coating of tung or mineral oil will help it from cracking. The real challenge for a relative novice turner like me will be creating the thin shank walls without cutting through. But, it's just something to try to see if I can do it. If I get a good mouthpiece out of it, great. If not, well, at least I tried.

[timothy42b]

There's a thread over on TubeNet about a 3D printed serpent.

The craftsman used a $200 Ender 3 3D printer and got great results. That's probably a better way to go unless your lathe is already numerical control.

Once you have the CAD file input, you can tweak parameters and adjust your mouthpiece each time with the printer, and materials are cheap. Get one you really like, and pay a service to have it printed in something stronger.

[dershem]

I asked my brother the carpenter and he says lignum vitae would be the wood to use - dense enough it can handle very fine work and threading if you just turned the cup, and won't react badly to the moisture needed to play.

[Posaunus]

Got to briefly try some AR Resonance mouthpieces yesterday at Southern California Trombone Day. Wow! They really seem to be very fine mouthpieces (after just a few minutes on each). [Alan Kaplan plays only on AR Resonance for his small tenor, large tenor, and bass trombones.]

But the cups that really intrigued me were those made of "Buffalo Horn." [I presume, since these are made in Italy, that the horns are from Italian water buffalo (Bufala Mediterranea Italiana), not American bison.]. These cups are lightweight and smooth, and feel great against the lips, much like a plastic mouthpiece. They are very dark color (nearly black), but look pretty cool. I thought the sound was pleasant, but this was in a noisy exhibit room. The cups screw onto a silver-plated brass backbore, obviating the risk of lathe-turning these thin-walled parts if they were also made of horn.

Perhaps BrerCottonmouth could source some horns and try turning them in to mouthpieces.