The standard brass instrument water key usually comprises of about six parts
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 5:30 am
As a brass instrument apprentice, there used to be an 'old boy' - everyone's old when you are sixteen - whose raison d'être was to make water key springs. There he sat, on his high stool at a bench in our factory, from 8am to 5.30pm, five days a week plus Saturday mornings, just winding springs on a little rod with a wheel at one end. To be fair, he was the First Aid man as well as spring maker, but sure as hell no one ever went near him if they'd had an accident.
Perhaps that reminiscence was the reason for me to enter and lock the door of the 'thinking room' and put the seat down. More probably, it was the absurdity of the device itself. The fact is that the brass instrument water key shop is the last thing a designer and manufacturer wants to know about when they've spent all their time and energy on the instrument itself.
A 'cast' key with a small tube brazed at right angles near it's fulcrum, with a cup shaped piece of metal, also brazed, at the non-levering end to take a piece of cork as a sealant. This casting is usually nickel plated for added strength prior to whatever finishes the instrument is intended to have.
A 'carriage', the base of which is soldered to the instrument's pipe or slide where the device is to be set. This 'carriage' has two raised prongs - one threaded to take the screw pin connecting the 'carriage' to the 'key'.
Perhaps that reminiscence was the reason for me to enter and lock the door of the 'thinking room' and put the seat down. More probably, it was the absurdity of the device itself. The fact is that the brass instrument water key shop is the last thing a designer and manufacturer wants to know about when they've spent all their time and energy on the instrument itself.
A 'cast' key with a small tube brazed at right angles near it's fulcrum, with a cup shaped piece of metal, also brazed, at the non-levering end to take a piece of cork as a sealant. This casting is usually nickel plated for added strength prior to whatever finishes the instrument is intended to have.
A 'carriage', the base of which is soldered to the instrument's pipe or slide where the device is to be set. This 'carriage' has two raised prongs - one threaded to take the screw pin connecting the 'carriage' to the 'key'.