Chiff and Fipple Forums

Having just seen this thread, I thought I'd better let people know that due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be making flutes for the next few months. Thanks to all for the kindly recommendations but I will not be taking any more orders for now and my website willl be going off-line. I will l...

I did find out more about laser engraving plastics: Delrin sort of just melts into a mess... Black delrin can be engraved by laser alright. I've always had my delrin barrels engraved by laser and watched the machine doing it several times but had concluded it would need to be the more powerful CO2 ...

Garry, Maybe some gold Rub n' Buff... Thanks for the suggestion, Kevin. I would use a gold, or silver rub for a design etching like the one on the guitar in that link you posted but for my own name on my flutes, I prefer the appearance of an understated, plain stamp. That way, people can look for m...

Nice work, Casey and I like the process you went through with it. I was looking at another brand of that same tripod mounted minilaser a few weeks back on Amazon but concluded that its 1.6W power rating either wouldn't be enough to make a visible engraving on black delrin - or might need a long time...

..I want to ask for some audios, videos etc about the Garry somers ones ...) Just to note for general information that there are indeed sound clips on my website for my flutes, which Alecs must have missed. Alecs, if you go to the following page, you will see there is a sound clip of Ciarán Somers ...

Hi, this is just out of curiosity... I have two Blackwood flutes from different makers (both reputed), and they clearly are biased towards different regions on the octave. One sings very well and feels natural in the upper register, and the other is more geared for the lower. Just with the naked ey...

Well, someone get together with me on this - PM is probably best - and let's see if we can come up with a viable and user-friendly outcome. Ben will be in on it too, of course. I'm normally unwilling to add any more stickies, but this could be an exception. If we can avoid a stickie, that would be ...

It's possible this may also be Michael's personal reaction to the actual delrin material of the flute, which I've not come across before. Michael tells me the flute is on the way back to the Irish Flute Store, so I will ask Blayne Chastain, the owner who is himself a fluteplayer and flute teacher, t...

Do you treat your conical Delrin flutes in the same way? I have one, purchased used, & I didn't notice anything like that, nor had any problem with lip contact or the flute's appearance. Might it be an unnecessary step? From the description, I am assuming that it's intended to provide some high...

The coating is on the head joint, which is Delrin. Garry did not give a reason for this but I'll email him and relay his response. As it may be of general interest, I'm not sure what Michael is reacting to on the delrin headjoint of the flute. We've already exchanged emails on this and I gave him s...

Terry McGee wrote:...Ipe, also known as Brazilian Walnut. 1100KG/M3, fine to medium texture, so in the right ballpark...

Before anybody buys Ipê to try it, I can say that I bought it several times while living in Brazil but it doesn't ream well. The reamers tear out the grain.

Garry

To avoid any confusion that might arise from this thread, I am still around but not in a position to supply flutes in a short time span just now and am reluctant to estimate waiting times which could also vary. All perfectly normal and all is well.

If I don't get around to using it to make whole flutes, I might just enquire about the possibility of buying a selection of short rods with different marbling effects and use those to make nice inlays for the end-facings of end-caps.

He offered me a couple of free samples at the time, enough to make two flutes and they would indeed look nice in photos on a flutemaker's website, with a link to the ebonite manufacturer and those nice clarinet barrels and saxophone mouthpieces. I suppose if a few makers did that, it could regenerat...

The pricelist he sent me in 2014 is a .pdf and I don't think it would retain a legible format if I posted it here. It's kind of a complicated list because there are several different prices for a metre of the material, depending on whether it's plain, or mottled/marbled and whether the finish is 'ra...