Top 10 reasons to avoid sharpening your bassoon profiler blade

blade from Herzberg bassoon reed profiler

10.  You've laid the groundwork to make the task as daunting as it can possibly be.  You've hidden your notes about how to sharpen the blade, you've stashed your diamond sharpening stone in an unknown location, and you have no idea what you did with the photos you took of each step last time you sharpened........

diamond sharpening stone and its leather sheath

9.  You know that you're supposed to sharpen the blade after 50 pieces of cane have been profiled, but you pretend you've lost count.... even though you number each reed.  The guilt can be paralyzing.

8.  Since you don't sharpen the blade very often, you know you're not very good at it.   In fact, it's entirely possible that you suck at blade sharpening even more than you realize.

7.  You are never really sure if the burr is there (and if it IS there, it certainly isn't very obvious).

6.  Since you aren't sure you actually have a burr, you sure as heck also don't know when it's been successfully removed.

5.  A newly sharpened profiler blade could very well result in reeds which are too thin.

4.  If you sharpen the blade often enough, eventually there will be  nothing left of it.

Keep doing this, and eventually there'll be nothing left!

3.  Blade sharpening takes too much time, so your schedule won't allow it.

2.  It's unlikely that your colleagues are whispering behind your back about your neglect of your profiler blade.

1.  Most people don't go around sharpening profiler blades ever.......geez.  It's not fair.

the blade installed in the profiler, where it belongs

And by the way, I'm gearing up to sharpen my profiler blade.  This post will hopefully result in action, now that I've exposed my excuses.

.