Nailing reeds

[Jomme]

Hello everyone,

I posted a question today about the nails I found in my Cavagnolo but I would like to go on...
I have a LMMM cavagnolo with double bassoon register that I would like to revalve and tune...

Ther are many opinions about nailing or waxing and I've been reading them, I decided to nail just because I rebuild my other Cavagnolo by waxing it... so just for practice I decided to nail this one so no way back and discussions about what sounds better etc please ))

I would like to have advice about how you did it and what I should take care about...
I removed the reads, cleaned the blocks and sanded them, I have a square meter of 1mm cork and so far that's it.
If I want to do a similar job of what I found I will have to cut strips of cork and glue them in approximately the same manner as I found them I guess... first question is maybe: Do I use normal wood glue to glue the cork?
Then for the nails what do i order as I don't want to use the old ones as the heads look assymmetrically from what I believe been 'hit on the head' ... now there are two sizes... 0.8 by 13mm and 1 by 13.5mm...
I read a interesting post here about making the holes wet a time or two to make the wood find his original position what makes the nails fit well but Im not sure I will find the same holes as I will replace the cork so...

So any advise is very appreciated!
How to cut/ glue the cork, what nails? Easyest way to nail? ( nail driver or not ) etc.....

And yes I know this might not be the most stable solution to keep the thing in tune but I hope it could be a very good lesson...

Any help appreciated!

Guillaume

 

[Waldo]

I would be concerned about the thin wood separators splitting when driving the new nails in. Depends a bit on where the box has lived for the past few years. In a dry climate the wood may have dried enough to split. A nail is not unlike a chisel to the wood. The smallest diameter nail shank that still has a large enough head would be prudent. Also, maybe a test run. You might not be able to see a split covered by cork and a reed plate. It could also require some time for the split to happen. I'd bet the factory uses a pneumatic brad gun, these days....lots quicker and sets the nail quickly (if anybody actually still uses nails). I like nails as they still hold when things get hot enough to melt the wax. My Soprani has both, nails and wax.

 

[JIM D.]

Most of the high end pro accordions have the reeds waxed in WITHOUT nails.
For many years accordions in stations with an operator that performed only one funtion and then the part or parts went to another
station operator. It was a common practice for a station to nail reeds in proper order on a reed block and the block would then
go to a waxing operator. The next station was a operator that did final tuning. This practise was common in "THE GOLDEN AGE OF
ACCORDIONS" when accordions were in high demand

 

[Jomme]

Thanks, I will soo what happens, there are some thin walls...

 

[Waldo]

The main reason I bought my Soprani was for the nails. It was my travel accordion, which I would take to tropical Mexico. I felt the nails would provide an advantage in the hot climate if the box got too hot, the nails would prevent the reed plates from detaching. Can't say it ever came to that, but I was ready.

 

[Sebastian Bravo]

Most of the high end pro accordions have the reeds waxed in WITHOUT nails.

Why? I've worked on many italian accordions without nails, but the only ones I found with both wax and nails was Morinos and Golas
Does it makes a difference in sound?

 

[Ffingers]

Why? I've worked on many italian accordions without nails, but the only ones I found with both wax and nails was Morinos and Golas
Does it makes a difference in sound?

I've just posted some pics of the innards of an old Scandelli - reed plates both nailed and waxed.