What about oiling the drones?
Oiling is one of those issues that causes heated arguments. There is a "maintenance" side to oiling, discussed in this note, or a "refurbishing" aspect to oiling, discussed here. This latter reference should be read if you bring an unused set up pipes back to life.
As a maintenance issue - on a well conditioned, frequently played, well cared for pipe, not exposed to extremes of heat or humidity- you probably don't "need' to oil it. However, if you occasionally leave your pipe in the car, near a radiator, play in high humidity/rain or leave you pipes unplayed for a few weeks or more - you might want to oil them just to avoid any issues.
If we consider "oiling" to be an "answer", the underlying "question" is usually, "how do I prevent my pipes from ever cracking?". Let's understand the issue...
When you play, you put very humid air into the inside of your instrument. If the moisture is absorbed by the wood, the wood will swell to accommodate the molecules of water. Only the wood near the bore will swell, not the rest. This creates a stress are the inner wall of the wooden "tube" which can eventually result in a crack or split.
(Note: The part most often affected is the practice chanter top. This is why wooden PC tops almost always crack. On the pipes, the blowstick, the blowstick stock and (if you don't have a tube type water trap) the chanter stock are most likely to be directly impacted by the humidity from your lungs. Drone stocks and bores are generally affected indirectly through water condensation by playing outside when the relative humidity is very high.)
Although it is sometimes presented that oil creates a layer on the surface of the wood so that moisture can't get to the wood - more correctly, the oil retards the uptake of moisture. This lets the wood swell only slowly. As long as the rate of moisture uptake is very slow, there is minimal stress built up in the wood and internal forces are minimized.
Now we should understand that we want a protective, hydrophobic layer on the wood which moisture cannot easily/rapidly penetrate. This can be done in a variety of ways. In the commercial world, the most obvious approach is "paint" or varnish, but, at first glance, no manufacture would want to do that! So, various products are used including petroleum based oils and waxes, biologically derived oils and waxes and silicone oils. There are rumors that under very controlled conditions, thin plastic films and reactive silanes or polymethacrylates are used.
Commercial woodwind bore oil (generally sold for clarinets made of African Blackwood) is often simply a particular viscosity of mineral oil. This is a simple hydrocarbon (paraffin) mixture like common motor oil. It is rather incompatible with wood and only coats the very surface. It basically never dries and seems to loose its effect after several weeks. However, if it prevents moisture from causing stress in the instrument, it's done its job.
Oils which are biologically derived from natural sources (i.e., almond, tung, linseed and, most recently, african blackwood) are often touted (without any solid data) as being slightly more "soluble" in wood. These oils are generally triglyceride esters of various fatty acids. Their composition depends on their genetics. (I've never seen an analysis of triglyceride content of african blackwood oil, but the others have lots of cross-linkable bonds.) An oil with a high content of double bonds (particularly conjugated double bonds), coated as a thin film on the drone bore may cross-link and "dry". Historically, some of these oils have been used as the basis for paints or varnishes, which again emphasizes the permanent nature of some of these coatings. "Drying" of these oils isn't about absorption or evaporation, but is the result of the double bonds in the oil reacting with atmospheric oxygen to form a moisture resistant, cross-linked, "solid" network - i.e. varnish.
Antioxidants (a.k.a. preservatives), such as vitamin E, are sometimes added to these biological oils to increase shelf-life. Upon spreading a film of the oil over a surface these antioxidants are rapidly overcome by the amount of oxygen in the air. Once the antioxidant is overcome, the oil will "dry"on the exposed surface.
Paraffin waxes or biological waxes are just higher molecular weight versions of petroleum and biological oils, respectively.
Each product has its advocates. Once you understand that any of these products are intended to minimize the rate of uptake of moisture to avoid stress in the wood., you've got the important bit. My feeling is that any oil that can crosslink will last longer than a similar viscosity of a non-drying oil. On the other hand, not everyone wants to risk a permanent modification of their bores, so a mineral oil may be preferable.
My advice would be that commercial bore oil suitable for a clarinet won't hurt and can be applied once or twice a year. I'd go with the spring and fall. It is applied with a soft cloth or swab.
It would be irresponsible to not acknowledge that there are anecdotal stories that oiling caused old drones to crack during refurbishing. However, I don't see any reason why oil should cause drones to crack and suspect that 1) insufficient oil coverage/penetration was provided followed by 2) uptake of moisture and 3) stress build-up inside the wood. I know from personal experience that the wood in an old dry set of drones will continuously change dimension during the first full year of being played. The trick is to manage the uptake of moisture that drives these changes.
Drones which are already cracked, but not humidified could reveal their cracks upon humidification. Humidification of the drone from a very dry state results in some expansion of the wood. Oiling cannot prevent an existing crack from opening up. (Personally, I don't believe that soaking a piece of wood in oil will substantively correct a pre-existing crack, either.)
Some very good references include:
Copyright S.K. MacLeod 1996-2025