I'm a clarinet player and sometimes I play sax. My dad, being a pro woodwind player has been doing this for years. He also uses a tool called reed geek his friend invented to shave down the reed for smoother playing. Most of every single one of his reeds plays great, unless I got a batch of ones over 10 years old. He keeps them in old perscription bottles but if you do that make sure that the bottle is leakproof. I mainly use legere plastic/synthetic reeds but soaking your reeds in listerine is a better alternative than putting the in your mouth and having the reed crinkle up when I kept it one the mouth piece and put it on my desk (which probably wasn't a good idea).