John EricsonAmong the final projects completed were these two crooks and a coupler.
The larger crook is an Eb crook, the smaller one is a F crook, and the coupler comfortably takes Eb down to D. All the popular “solo” keys.
The coupler parts came from the first valve of the Glassl horn, so my plan was to use it on that horn. But the coupler works real well with the French bell horn too, so it may stay with that horn.
The crooks were finished in a “French” style with the classic crushed tube brace. I also added the nice labels seen below. I have some sheet nickel silver stock, and I made them from that. In French!
With that, things are mostly done for now, or I’m at a stopping point due to lack of parts. Just in time for it to soon be too hot to use my garage shop (when the overnight lows start getting up around 85 degrees, my little shop air conditioner can hardly keep up). The shop work this year has been very interesting! This French natural horn and the Mirafone Kruspe in particular. I’ve also been getting in some good practice, and things I’ve learned will be going into my teaching and writing projects.