Recent discussions about cleaning recorders and violins has made me wonder about cleaning the clarinet. Apart from wiping the joints and mouthpiece and running a cloth through after playing, is there any more in-depth cleaning that should be done from time to time? I know that if the mouthpiece is washed under the tap, only warm water should be used, not hot, and I do this. But what about the other parts of the clarinet - should any in-depth cleaning be done on the other parts periodically? And should disinfectant be used occasionally? What does everyone else do?

I remember learning that the hard way years ago! My old 5RV MP still plays well, but now has a very faint hint of green.

For wooden clarinets I swab regularly and dry/grease the tenons. Approx every year, I oil the bore and use a cotton bud to clean out tone holes and register key, then oil the keys. For the average instrument that should be enough.

If some of the cork tenons don't feel quite as firm as they should when the clarinet's assembled, there's a little trick that I use to 'rejuvenate' them.

Wash the cork carefully with soapy water to remove the old grease. Wipe the cork using very hot boiled water and leave it to soak in - of course at all times protecting the rest of the wood with something like clingfilm.
Heat a normal knife over a gas flame, or even kettle, and wipe the hot metal all over the cork. Repeat a few times.

The idea is to make the cork cells expand again after being compressed for years. It works really well!

Steve

Well that might explain why the second hand clarinet i bought has a tinge of green in it. it was a bit yukky to start with but i cleaned it up and its fine now!

I don't do a lot of different things to what has been mentioned on previous posts. I do like to clean out the tone holes fairly regularly, to save build up of gunk (that's the technical word, gunk )

I can get quite animated when talking about oiling clarinets! You are more likely to damage a clari by over-oiling rather than under-oiling - so when you oil keys (and I really wouldn't do it that often, every 12-18 months I'd say would be plenty), I'd recommend using a strand of oil the thickness of cotton. No thicker.

If you are at all unsure about oiling the bore of your clarinet, get an expert to do it. Oil can get onto pads etc, which isn't going to do the pads a lot of good......

Will they oil it as part of a normal service?

I should think your repairer would, yes Rosemary. Of course if you're unsure, ask.

I think I will next time it goes in... I never know with my local one, hes done some strange things to my sax before and I'm not sure if I want to entrust him with my new clarinet!

You are so right! I still remember thinking I was being very clever in oiling all the keys, then to see streams of the oil running down the wood!



I think that this is because some people used to use their swabs to oil the bore, without realising that bits of the swab stuck up through the tone holes. These days, you can buy oiling rods that stay inside the bore and do a very good job.

I have no idea if oiling would be part of a service, because the whole subject is still controversial, but as Barry said, I'm sure they'll do it if asked. Just be sure they use a proper plant-based oil and not a petroleum oil. Plant oils soak in and protect the wood from changes in humidity. All the others just make the bore look nice and shiny, but are removed each time you swab.

Steve

Peter Eaton say not to oil the bore. I think the person who does my clarinet oiled it with almond oil, much to my annoyance as I'm allergic to nuts, but he took all of the keys etc off so that he didn't damage the pads. It was OK thought, and fotunatley I didn't react to it, but I hadn't been expecting him to oil it and so I hadn't warned him not to use almond oil.

It's good, if at all possible, to find a regular, good repairer to call on. Ask them exactly what they do as part of a regular service/full overhaul etc. A good repairer will be more than happy to tell you. If there's anything there that you don't want them to do (eg oiling), tell them.

That person may have been wiser than you thought.

Almond oil has always been the preferred plant oil to use for the bore. The others are olive, peanut and linseed, though to be honest I've never even seen a bottle of linseed oil! I don't even know what linseed is!

It's also unlikely that you'd have a problem with the oil. I think the allergy is to proteins in the nuts, not to the oil.

This has all been discussed to death on the www.woodwind.org forum. Go there and do a search. You'll be amazed!

When restoring very old and dry clarinets, you should use olive, peanut and then almond oil in that order. That's the order of how fast the oil soaks into the wood. When I first discovered this, I was very sceptical since olive oil seemed so thick and viscous compared to the others, but when I experimented I found it was true.

Of course, up north they use lard!

Steve