Chiff and Fipple Forums

My flute has a hairline crack in the metal lined head joint. It doesn't affect the playing but it would look better if it was fixed.

Is it a repair that is straightforward to do myself without sending the flute to the repair shop?

DIY doable, probably, yes, depending on your talents and patience. "Straightforward", well..... Often yes, but not always. Normally no fancy tools or skills are needed, but sometimes they can become necessary. Have a look at some of my repair story-albums on Facebook - I've done a bunch of these jobs and taken lots of photos. One thing to bear in mind - it may be hairline now, but you still almost certainly ought to do the full job on it - remove rings and liner, glue crack, enlarge bore and refit liner, cosmetically dress the exterior and refit the rings. If you don't and just run glue into it, sooner or later it will open up again, and the metal liner is no guarantee of it not leaking - they can leak from the embouchure chimney between the wood and metal to the cracks or the ends. (Have you suck tested the head systematically with the stopper removed?)

Jem, the more extensive fix involving removing the liner is probably beyond the basic tools that I have. I'm not averse to learning how to repair but that sounds like a job I should entrust to a professional. Roughly how much should that sort of repair cost? I imagine that removing the liner would also enable fixing my stuck tuning slide at the same time?

Yes, the tuning slide would have to be freed - which is rarely a big problem. I don’t know what anyone else might charge for this type of job and, not having seen the flute either in photos or in the flesh I can't make more than a loose guesstimate based on experience. Depending on how straightforward or difficult the job proves, time is the main element - materials and tooling are negligible. Sight unseen I'd say it would likely be between £60-100 if I did it and no other work was involved.

Jem, right now this is my one and only flute and as I am in full-on newbie woodshedding mode I'm a bit reticent to not have it around to play. But I will have a keyless shortly and then would be keen to get this one fixed. I can post up a photo of the crack for you to take a look at. If you say you can fix it I'd be very happy to entrust that fix to you.

Sure, post a photo or two. And give me a shout whenever you're ready.

To add on to Jem's reply...
Don't be so sure the crack doesn't have any effect at all on the flute. The first winter I had my Morvan flute, the lined headjoint developed a hairline crack. I took it to a friend of mine who makes pipes, and he insisted that it was no big deal and that he could just fill it with black cobbler's wax and that would be fine. "Don't take it to some woodwind repair guy who'll charge you 200 bucks," he said. So he filled the crack, and I thought that was it. The flute seemed to play more or less OK, and I forgot about it.

Fast-forward almost a year later, and I begin to notice that the flute is definitely leaking from somewhere. This time, I took it to a woodwind repair guy, and when I open the case, he says, "Oh, I love working on flutes like these." OK, good sign. Turns out he's the go-to guy for many of the woodwind players in the Portland Baroque Orchestra.

I thought maybe it was just a leaky key or two, but after a quick inspection, he told me that yes, while a couple of the keys weren't quite airtight, the real problem was air leaking between the metal lining and the wood exterior of the headjoint. He took it all apart and did the repair properly--the filled crack is almost totally invisible now. But when I played it for the first time, I was amazed--it was more responsive and easier to play than when I initially bought it. In the end, it did cost me close to 200 bucks, but it was definitely worth it.

If you don't live near a good flutemaker, I'd definitely recommend finding an experienced woodwind repairman in your neck of the woods if at all possible. Sometimes it's best not to leave these things to chance.