Saunders Recorders

Bristol England

Window Damage

The window sides are worn away.

The straight cut that I call the 'North face' is damaged

Even the end of the block is damaged.

The labium is worn and on the 'east' side it has been pushed down and broken away.

All this has been done by a thumb nail in an attempt to clear the water that clogs the recorder during playing.

It took the best part of ten years to destroy this recorder... it was played a lot until it lost its tone. The wood is pear wood, which is not termed a 'soft wood' without good reason, but that is only part of the problem. Covering the window and blowing hard is a very bad practice advocated by many players as a result of bad advice dating back to the 1940's regurgitated by successive generations of unthinking players, and, dare I say it, teachers. Thumb nails are very tough and can inflict serious damage, especially if they are worn long. Its usually ladies who do this sort of damage, but men too should be careful. A descant recorder is too small to suffer this extreme damage, the delicate labium edge is too deep to be reached by most thumb nails, but I have seen similar damage to the sides of the window on a descant.

The only way to clear a clogged recorder
safely is by sucking back.