Olav, an accomplished Oboist, did meet Jacques Mettes, a physicist, at the event of the Boulder Music Festival in Colorado. Olav went over the art of double reed making with Jacques and revealed some of his tricks to make really great reeds. They discussed the physics behind this, did experiments to confirm the "model" to conclude that shaping the reed under stress while folded is a major source of potential assymmetry. This leaves the "flat shaper" as a preferred technique, but the corresponding antiquated tools introduced a lot of uncertainty regarding the fold while alignment on the tool left a lot to the dexterity of the user. Even a more modern "reed shaping machine" did not guarantee equally long leg for the folded cane. Unequal legs might cause one leg to be pushed up more than the other when tightening the reed down on the conical, oval shaped staple.
Anyway, Jacques designed a tool that is compact and simple while addressing all the issue associated with shaping a double reed: the reedshaper.
