How often should you oil the bore for a wood clarinet. Also does anybody know if a clarinet gets pinned will it ever come out without force?

By oiling the clarinet it would help to know what the humidity is for the range that you live in. When I got my clarinet The man at the shop also gave me a guide to how to take care of it and had backround information on it. I guess a good thing to do would to be to look at the bore and if it has little cracks in it it needs to be oiled. It says to oil it until the wood does not soak up any more of the oil. You will know that by the shine on the wood. Plus what type of wood is yours? Mine is a Grenadilla wood.

You should never oil your clarinet. Take it to a professional. It should go in at least once a year anyway to have the keys realigned and such. It should be oiled and cleaned at this time.

As far as pinning, that doesn`t occur unless your clarinet cracks. Once it is pinned, no, the pin will never come out again (and you don`t want it to).

I was never told that I had to bring in my clarinet to be oiled. I was given a packet with a lot of information in it that told you all the effects that the weather has on a wooden clarinet and what you have to do to maintain it. It was written by the guy who found out what works best on clarinets. It says that you should only use organic oil on it and that if you do not oil it and you are in a dry climate it will crack. If you want I can email you the packet. I do not know who told you not to oil your clarinet. I have never had a problem oiling mine and it actually does help to protect the bore from gaining too much water and cracking the wood on the outside.

I think there`s a bit of a misunderstanding here. Oiling to the point that it will not soak up any more oil is definitely something a repairman should do, and not you (unless of course you do your own repairs). However, it`s not a bad idea to use bore oil on your clarinet about once a month or so. This is done by using a tiny amount on a feathery swab-on-a-stick to rub inside the clarinet. Don`t put too much, because bore oil will ruin your pads. And then, let the clarinet dry for a day or so afterward (at least overnight). Again, this is a very small amount of oil. Can`t emphasize that enough. Small amount. And no more than once a month. Less if your clarinet is still pretty young.

Fracois Kloc recommends you not oil new (wooden) buffet clarinets, as they are presoaked for a period.

I oil mine about semi-annually. You can usually tell when they need oil because they look different.

"I was never told that I had to bring in my clarinet to be oiled."

That would be because you don`t need to.

I send in my wooden clarinet once a year to be oiled and cleaned and that`s it. My tutor told me once that it`s the best way. A professional knows what he/she does and it`s much less expensive then ruining your clarinet by doing the oiling the wrong way.
I also thought that humidity hadn`t that much to do with oiling as had warm/cold weather. I know that I for one doesn`t dare to bring my wooden clarinet with me when it`s cold outside since the difference between outdoor temperature and indoor temperature once made one of my clarinets crack.

I know that too much oil can be a problem but if you do not oil it it mosst likely will need quite a bit. I do do my own repairs if I can but if I think that it is too risky then i definately let it to a professional. I am blind so i definately would not do it if it was something to hard. But I have one question. There is one place on my clarinet that I have a diffiucult time putting the oil on and that is where the a key and octave key is at. You could see the grain in it when I bought it from theone store. It does play well though. I got to play numerous ones at the store before I had to make a decission on the one that I wanted. Is there anything that could help me reach that area on my clarinet?

Jennnifer, that area sounds like something that would better be dealt with by a good soaking (done by a trustworthy repairman). Oiling on your own should only be on the inside and in very little amounts. Since your`s is a bit older, it would probably be to your benefit to have the repairman show you the correct way to oil the inside yourself.

I have read all of your comments on oiling a wooden clarinet, but i still have a very big problem. My father gave me his clarinet to use two years ago, and its almost 50 years old this morning I found a crack in it. I was just wondering what i should do, and if it is possible for it to be fixed.

I was told that fixing a crack in a clarinet is possible and will not effct anything. I just dont reccomend taking bad care of it knowing that you can just fix it.

Once a crack develops, it`s there for good. There is no way of getting rid of it. But, cruelest of all, cracks can (and do) get bigger, much like the one in your windshield. Just keeps growing and growing. So, get it to a good repairman who will pin it to keep it from spreading. Often times, once it`s pinned, it will play almost as well as it did before the crack, and really only the most discerning players will notice the difference. Sorry to hear about that, but good luck with the repairs.