Sourcing Suitable Dry hardwood for Flutemaking

[accordionstu]

I was hoping a flute maker who has pondered this question and found an answer can assist me here. I was wondering whether snooker/pool cues made from Ash would be suitable to use to make small flutes from? I have a whistle made from Ash and it is stable and produces a good timbre so seems likely, also rolling pins (for baking) are made from Beech or Acacia wood, are these suitable for making flutes?

[Terry McGee]

Generally the furniture woods are a bit soft, light and coarse for flutes. I think the density is a pretty good guide, and density information is easy to find. Boxwood (at about a density of 1.0 - i.e. about the same density as water) is about as light as I think you want to go. Mopane, african blackwood are about 1.2. Gidgee ( a NSW acacia) can get up to around 1.3. Delrin around 1.4. Ash is around 0.7.

For fun I built a Prattens out of Radiata Pine, our local plantation construction timber (about 0.3). It was appalling! Indeed, until oiled I couldn't get a note below A. But I could breath through it!

Terry

[Casey Burns]

One thing that can be done with lighter weight woods to make them heavier, less porous and incredibly stable is to impregnate them with acrylic resin. I'll be exploring this technique soon with a flute made from lacewood. I've seen turned examples of pear and other fruit woods and the results are great.

Finding wood is fairly easy. Finding wood that is dry and ready to use is another thing. Earlier this year I jumped at the chance to purchase some 3000 pieces of blackwood - all in the form of clarinet tubes that were pilot bored on the inside and finish turned on the outside. All of these parts were in boxes labeled 1999 which meant that these were probably from blackwood harvested in 1979. All of it tests at 5% RH. I was very lucky! My favorite wood supplier sits on a mountain of blackwood that is all reject wood from the clarinet industry. I can find enough good wood in this to continue my flute making. He has some higher grade stuff that is more recently cut that is more or less defect free but it is much more expensive, and not fully dry. I have to turn it in stages and wait more than a year to use it. Fortunately all of this wood is pre-CITES and there will be no restriction on its use. I'll be able to export flutes from it once I sort out the paperwork nightmare (its not as dire as it sounds, I suspect).

Mopane is a great flute wood. But the last few remaining suppliers in the US get it from someone who mills it from logs and insists on waxing the entire stick, rather than just the ends. This means that I have to turn it round several months in advance, or it will never dry down to the range that I use. I usually pilot bore the pieces and weight them to the nearest gram. I watch the weight every season and when the weight stabilizes the wood is pretty much as dry as it will get. The last few summers were frustrating - our warm blob made everything too humid and it was difficult to force the moisture out of the wood.

Given the increasing number of instrument makers and wood turners in general one just has to plan to get a bunch of wood and sit on it before it is ready.

Casey

[accordionstu]

Thanks Terry a Casey, I appreciate your feedback, I guess I'll just order a bunch of wood and let it dry out slowly, in the meantime I can concentrate on making a stock of flutes in Aluminium and Delrin.

[Casey Burns]

I've heard that they'll be including Delrin with the CITES listing as most border guards can't tell it from Blackwood.

[accordionstu]

I've heard that they'll be including Delrin with the CITES listing as most border guards can't tell it from Blackwood.

I must admit I've always been an advocate of the Blackwood flutes however after making one in Delrin last week I am struggling to hear any noticable difference between them. The Delrin sounds so good.

[Casey Burns]

Wait a few years. The Blackwood will go slowly from a circular cross section to a very slightly oval cross section which will do wonders to the tone and response. This could theoretically be machined into a Delrin flute. There may be other changes going on which cause this tone improvement however. The Delrin flute will stay the way it is now, forever.

Casey