The Reed Knife Maintenance Kit and Tool Case for Oboe and Bassoon is the first and only accessory kit of its kind for reed knives that improves and prolongs your knife’s edge without sharpening when making and adjusting oboe, bassoon, and clarinet reeds. It comes with a Jende Folding Steel and an Edge Tester. These tools are housed in a zippered tool pouch that can also accommodate cutting blocks, mandrels, and rulers, etc. Detailed instructions are included.
The edge tester from the kit easily evaluates the edge condition of any reed knife without the need to use your thumbnail. The more you use it the more sensitive you become to the feedback. You will begin to feel the slightest of imperfections and even differences between grits and finishes of an edge.
The Jende folding steel is lightweight and compact. It offers an easy and consistent way to manipulate your dull edge back into position without sharpening or abrading it. It is highly effective on all reed knife types, and is used as the first step before sharpening and the final step to “personalize your burr”. It maximizes the edge to the way you scrape rather than changing your scrape to match the edge by positioning the edge into a right handed, left handed or straight position.
More information can be found about using the folding steel and edge tester in the Jende Book of Sharpening Double Hollow Ground Reed Knives.
Samantha –
I usually touched up an edge several times while making a reed. With the kit, I can now simply use the folding steel and get the edge back without using a stone or sticks. The edge tester also lets me feel when the edge is not good enough anymore. Great products, Jende!