Maintaining multiple flutes

[AaronFW]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I've been silently reading them as they come in. It has been nice to see the wide variance.

[Jon C.]

I have about 40 in my shop, so I keep the humidity around 50% and use a humidifier in the summer...

[Nanohedron]

... up to 50 regularly...

Up to 50 Here in the English West Midlands it rarely gets down to 50. I make a point of leaving the case open overnight after a session so that I don’t find the flute still damp when I come back to it.

I envy you. Where I live, winters are bone-dry because the moisture's all locked up in snow. Like Jim, I've had instruments crack - first out of ignorance, and later out of carelessness. Now I humidify my whole apartment, but the colder it gets outside, the drier it gets - on its own it can get as low as 10% - so the poor humidifier can't do it all. I modified humidifier worms for guitar and fiddle, slipped them into my flute parts, and shut the case. Worked for me. But you really need to give the flute an airing every day, then, to stave off mildew.

So, yeah. If you're dealing with dry conditions, humidifying's definitely #1. Oiling's nice, but I'm unconvinced it helps with moisture retention. I had a dogwood flute that I oiled, and it drank up the oil like a sponge, but it still was subject to rapid swelling and shrinking nevertheless.

[chas]

I oil boxwood but not rosewoods. The box maybe 2-4 times a year. I line them up in a row and humidify all at once. Like others, I humidify in the winter. Even with all my room humidifiers, it's seldom above 40% inside, less in the living room with a wood stove.