Are there any descriptions of the steps by which professional ney makers make a ney?
I found a perfect segment of donax cane in a friends yard by the beach. Nice and round section,
nodes in perfect spacing for a docca, maybe a little green. I want to get this one just right.
What I do:
I usually mark the holes end end cuts from my chart. Cut the length 5 mm longer, burn holes,
than hollow the nodes, finally pierce the top node. Than play, and trim the ends.
But what do the experts do?
I found a perfect segment of donax cane in a friends yard by the beach. Nice and round section,
nodes in perfect spacing for a docca, maybe a little green. I want to get this one just right.
What I do:
I usually mark the holes end end cuts from my chart. Cut the length 5 mm longer, burn holes,
than hollow the nodes, finally pierce the top node. Than play, and trim the ends.
But what do the experts do?
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Re: amateur ney making
Mon, March 31, 2008 - 5:09 PM
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Re: amateur ney making
Sat, April 5, 2008 - 9:33 PMHi
I have been looking around to see if we have Arundo Donax here in New Zealand.I have decided that at least some of the large clumps of reeds are the right stuff.Could you describe how you choose a piece of reed from all the other stuff in the clump?
Thanks -
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Re: amateur ney making
Mon, April 7, 2008 - 6:22 AMNey are made from a 1m section of the donax cane just below the flowery plume. In this part of the cane, the
plant grows a series of short nodes, spaced at about 10 cm or less. The last few nodes zig-zag slightly, especially
the couple just before the flower. If you look at professional neys, you will see this pattern. Neys are
up-side down, in that this 1m section is flipped such that the bottom of the ney is the part just before
the flower.
Where I live, its a challenge to find canes with large enough diameter and short enough nodes.
In shady places and with lots of moisture, the canes are too narrow and elongated.
This is typical of Mississippi, where we have a lot of moisture and competing plants.
Wind seems to help, locations more exposed to wind seem to produce better canes.
I've gotten my best canes from clumps on dry, sunny, windy jetties near the sea.
Go into the clump and bend over the tall large diameter canes. By inspecting them by feel, you can choose
the ones of the approximate right diameter and node spacing. You can cut the entire cane or just
the 2m top section that guarantees enough cane to work with. Its a bit of trial and error.
Hope this helps. -
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Re: amateur ney making
Tue, April 8, 2008 - 8:33 AMI found several good pieces of cane in a now gone field near Williams CA and have made a number of ney from them. I copied the spacing and have seen a chart, as obviously have you, since you added a new picture to the group photos.
Mostly the best results were when I copied from a good ney, and adjusted to fine-tune as needed.
Oh, I was making Arabic nai, no bas,pare. I did get a Turkish made bas,pare and did make one C Turkish ney, but I did not do any turning so I cannot claim the full manufacturing as mine.
I too cannot usually find cane of the correct proportions for neys, but there is plenty of it around Northern CA, for reedmaking and for mijwiz and arghul making.
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Re: amateur ney making
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 3:30 AMHere in Portugal you find donax all over everywhere but I have never found a cane with the correct proportions.
The spaces between the nodes are too long. It is donax cane but I wonder if the soil and climate really have an influence on the growing of the cane. Most of the wild canes grow on the riversides; perhaps humidity has an influence.
I will keep searching. -
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Re: amateur ney making
Thu, May 1, 2008 - 12:35 PMYour comment about the cane on the riverside brings to mind that when I find donax on a marsh edge or bank of
a drainage ditch, it is too large, too tall, and the nodes are too long. Presumably to moist, rich and fertile of a location.
See if you can find a clump that is on dry rocky ground or on an exposed jetty.
My best pieces have come from places where the plant appears stunted from lack of moisture and too much wind. -
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Re: amateur ney making
Wed, May 7, 2008 - 9:52 AMI am not sure either; the donax samples I used to make ney were very hard to find in California, where there is a lot of cane growing in various climates. Almost all is too long in the nodal spacing for ney making.
I should post a pic of the ones I made.
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