Hi folks. I am a relative novice to this art, but am learning all the time.
I have a problem. I have managed to block the end cap jewel with wood while I was giving it a clean. Obviously, I am unable to push through the blockage and I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas on how to clean out the jewel.
Thanks, Steve from the UK.

Steve-

If I am understanding your situation correctly, you may have to take the staff jewels out and push the wood out from the backside of the pivot jewel. I do this with broken off staffs stuck in pivot jewels. I use a needle to remove broken staffs. make sure to push it back out the way it came into the jewel. You must be very careful though, otherwise you may crack the jewel. The wood should come out pretty easily.

do any of our expert repair people have any other suggestions on this?

Jared

You could also try putting it in an ultrasonic cleaner if you have one.

Stephen,

Did you remove the hole and cap jewels or attempt to clean them in place? To clean balance jewels and any others with caps they have to come apart in order to properly clean them. Do you have porcupines in the UK? Their quills are great tools for cleaning hole jewels.

Hi Roger and all you splendid fellows out there!!.
All done.......As you may have gathered, I haven't done this before so having a look underneath I see a screw, so I undid this screw and hey presto the end cap comes off and of course I can now pass a thin sliver of wood all the way through and clean properly.
We don't have Porcupines here in the UK, but we do have them in our zoos, so the next time I go, I will jump over the fence and chase one around the pen to the delight of my long suffering wife!!..........I'm sure the zoo keeper will understand my need for a quill or two!!.
When you coming over Rog?.

Roger: Porcupine quills, great idea. I never heard of using those. Where do you get them? Off a porcupine....i know but where?..lol
Paul

Paul,

A friend had one in his yard and it left a bunch of quills. You can also keep an eye out for road kill, but make sure you have leather gloves. They are VERY sharp. Or you can go to the zoo in England and Stephen will be able to set you up You can also google them and believe it or not, you can buy them online.

Any reason you do not use pith wood. They have only been using pithwood on this side of the pond for 50 years. It cost a whole $8.00 for a hand full.

That is a lot cheeper than getting bailed out of jail.

Pith wood is good too. I use different methods depending on how bad the situation is and what I happen to feel like doing at the time.

You can also buy the quills at a local "Bead and Button" store. They do come in handy at times.