Chiff and Fipple Forums

I thought you all might like the latest restoration of a George Rudall, pre Rudall & Rose, probably made by Willis. There is one other in the Dayton Miller collection, also stamped Willis.
This was a joint restoration with Jem, he had a go at it first, then I did some more work on it, it is all arkived on our Facebook pages. This was restored for Rick Wilson, of the oldflutes.com site, always a wealth of information... Jem made the replacement barrel and did some cleaning up of the flute, my contrubtion was a couple of blocks, a new shrt F key, the head joint turned out to be lined with cocuswood, presumably to keep the boxwood from cracking.

Looks very nice. Does it sound as good as it looks? I like that you've used thread and not cork on the tenons. I'd have preferred an embouchure hole without the ivory if possible

Well, from this angle it now looks flawless, as expected. The silver lined blocks are a particularly nice touch, but I've found that oxidation can interfere with their operation at times. Do you use any particular lubricant or treatment to address this?

Interesting embouchure -- is it truly circular or is that a trick of the picture? About 10-11 mm round? Do you think the ivory insert is original?

Beautiful work and flute. I'd expect nothing less, and love to see a collaboration between people I respect. What is the pitch ? Is the tuning in line , or have you changed it?

Stuporman wrote:Beautiful work and flute. I'd expect nothing less, and love to see a collaboration between people I respect. What is the pitch ? Is the tuning in line , or have you changed it?

Thanks, I think there is indications that the tuning has been adjusted at some point, that said it is in very good tuning in 440hz.

chas wrote:Interesting embouchure -- is it truly circular or is that a trick of the picture? About 10-11 mm round? Do you think the ivory insert is original?

It is a classice round oval, I don’t remember the dimentions, it has been shipped off, but I would say 11.7x10.4. The ivory is original, as the head joint is sandwiched with cocuswood, couldn’t cut a embouchure without a insert. It is very close to the Dayton Miller Geo Rudall.

Latticino wrote:Well, from this angle it now looks flawless, as expected. The silver lined blocks are a particularly nice touch, but I've found that oxidation can interfere with their operation at times. Do you use any particular lubricant or treatment to address this?

Yes, everything moves well in the lined key ways, the problem was the guide block that wasn’t lined!

Steampacket wrote:Looks very nice. Does it sound as good as it looks? I like that you've used thread and not cork on the tenons. I'd have preferred an embouchure hole without the ivory if possible

Yes, it is a very vibrant strong tone!
You will have to complain to Willis or George Rudall, they came up with it!
Here is the one at Dayton Miller:


I love the roller on the short F, I was tempted to put one on the replacement key.


You can see how strange this head joint is!


The foot needed a little work!


The short F was a challenge...

Here is a link to my part of the restoration on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/cochranflutes/ ... 292&type=3

You can see my part in this flute's story in this Facebook album, from the condition it turned up in through to the state Rick received it in, knowing there were a couple of jobs I couldn't do and which I anticipated Jon finishing off at some stage. There are also a links to demo videos on YouTube. Some of the questions asked in the posts above will no doubt find answers through a perusal of my photos


https://m.facebook.com/jemtheflute/albu ... 5976884271

Here's the direct link to the main YouTube video demo I made of the flute when I had done all that I could to it. It includes using the flute at three different pitches, as annotated in the blurb on YT. IMO it plays best in terms both of response/tone and also scale intonation tuned to cA430.

https://youtu.be/NXpqvjDkg-I