A level tone hole with disc on top: 

 A stainless steel tone-hole leveling disc with leak-light inside sax: 

 The S-rod with dent ball and tone-hole protector:

 For the high C#, I use a straight rod with a small dent ball  (shown here: Low B tones hole)

For tapping down high spots, a "pad slick" will protect the surface of the tone hole when I apply a few careful "love taps" from a tack-hammer:



Tone Hole Leveling

         A level tone hole makes it much easier to seat a pad, but very few saxophones (none that I've seen) have truly level tone holes when they leave the factory. This is, I believe, due to the nature of the manufacturing process and the fact that metal has memory.

         When tone holes are created on most modern saxophones, they are extruded, or "drawn" (stretched) from the brass of the body, and then cut to "level" at the factory. Some saxes have extruded tone holes with a rolled edge (Conn) and a couple have soldered-on tone holes (King, Martin). For the purposes of this article, I'll be talking only about the extruded tone holes found on Conns, Selmers, Yamahas, Yanigisawas, and other "drawn" tone hole saxophones (most saxes).

         Though the tone holes may be perfectly level immediately after they are cut, the memory in the metal tends to eventually pull or warp the brass of the tone holes towards its original position as part of a round cone. This is a very slight change, but enough to leave valleys and hills on the tone-hole chimney. These valleys and hills can be easily observed by putting a flat metal disc (as seen in picture) on top of the tone hole and shining a leak light from the inside. Every single saxophone on which I've worked has these peaks and dips, to one extent or another.

         The part of the leveling process I take issue with is the tendency of many repair technicians to level the tone holes with a rotary file or a flat tone-hole file. The problem with this technique is that the higher "hills" get ground down to the lowest level of the valleys, which can be very low, indeed. If the tone holes were of equal length all the way around, as they might be if the sax body was a square tube, this might not be much of a problem.

         But the "North/South sides of the tone hole chimneys (when the sax is standing up) are much shorter than the "East/West" sides of the tone hole, and it is this ""North/South" side that stands to lose the most if it also happens to have a little "hill" on it, which is very common. 

         I've seen tone holes that had been ground down so far on the North/South side that the pad hit the body of the tube when the key was closed! 

The reason techs use files is simple: it's quicker and easier to create a very flat surface on which to seat a pad.

But quality sax repair is not about quick and easy. Remember, any metal, once removed can not be put back. This is why I use what I call the "dent-repair" technique of tone-hole leveling.

         Why start by removing metal with a file when there's a better, although slower, way? I'm not suggesting that the file (or rotary discs) should never be used, only that they should be used as the last resort, not the first.

         It's not even necessary to level all the tone holes; Certain tone-holes will accept a pad easily with little or no leveling at all (side Bb and C, LH palm keys, Low Eb, etc...) This is because these keys are held closed by spring tension, and act independently of other keys. The Low C is the only open key that is not linked to other keys and it should always be leveled. But for the other independent-key tone holes, no leveling is usually necessary unless the tone-holes are very distorted,

         But where keys are linked together, (the Right and Left Hand stack keys, and the Low Bb/B keys), a level tone hole will allow for a finer level of adjustment and an easier time seating a pad. It is these areas on which most techs spend the majority of their pad-seating time.

         With an S-curve dent rod, several sizes of tone-hole protectors, and a few dent balls, the tone holes can be made mostly level without using a file at all. By pushing up, or un-warping the low spots, and tapping down the high spots (with something on top of the tone hole to protect it, such as a clarinet pad-slick) each hole can be brought into a condition where the final step will create a very flat surface on which to seat a pad.

Once the tone hole has been un-warped and brought to a state near or at level, THEN, a few gentle swipes of the file will remove any burrs or inconsistencies on the surface of the tone hole. A pass with some 400-grit sandpaper over the top of the hole will remove sharp edges and file marks and leave you with a tone hole that is very flat. Polishing/smoothing using 600 grit is nice, too.

         There is a learning curve to this technique. I've been doing it for most of the last twenty-two years, but sometimes tone holes just don't want to cooperate. This is especially true of saxophones that have been re-lacquered; where the buffer has buffed extra hills and valleys into the tone hole. These hills and valleys have nothing to do with the kind of warping that occurs in the manufacturing process and are difficult to deal with. Usually, I'll get what I can from the "dent-repair" technique of tone-hole leveling then use the file. It takes a while to learn what can be done and what can't with this technique, and re-lacquered horns can truly try one's patience.

         But one thing's for sure: The saxophone that has had the tone holes leveled with my technique will have more brass in it than the one that has had the tone holes ground down with flat or rotary files.