A question about Halary flutes - flute parts, that are stuck

[DavieD]

I have got an old wooden 5-key flute made by Halary, Francois Sudre, Paris.
It’s a small holed flute made from rosewood or cocuswood (or some other wood).
Is there somebody out there, who can tell me a little bit about this flute or the maker?

I can’t disassemble the barrel and the first part of the body. They are stuck, but it seems, as if they should be 2 different parts.
I can’t move them and don’t want to destroy the flute by using to much power.
Has somebody any advice, how to get the parts apart?
The flute hasn’t been played for a long time, so the wood is quite dry.

Thanks, David

[paddler]

According to The New Langwill Index, your flute came from a business that made musical instruments (brass and various woodwind) in Paris in the 1800s.
The business seems to have been operated by three generations of Halary's, starting in the late 1700s or early 1800s. The third in line, Jules Leon Antoine,
who was also known as Halary fils (son), took over and eventually sold the business to Coste & Cie, where Sudre was the proprietor. The maker's mark of
"Halary (Sudre Succr)" was used between 1978 and 1885.

Based on your pictures, this looks to me like a fairly typical 5-key French flute. These often have a very flat F#, which allows cross fingering F in the same
way as on a baroque flute (despite having a key for F!), but makes them sound a bit strange for playing Irish music. They are usually tuned to A=435 hz, but
sometimes A=440.

As for the stuck tuning slide, you could try heating it up a bit. Sometimes there are traces of beeswax and other congealed grease that cause the two parts of
the slide to glue together. Heat will soften these allowing for some movement. It'll probably still take a fair bit of heat and force to open initially though. Go at
it incrementally. Once it is separated it will be easy to clean up.

[Terry McGee]

Now, being a French flute, it possibly has just a partial head slide - can you see metal or wood when you look into the embouchure hole? So you need a method of heating the inside of the slide without damaging the wood further up. Sounds like the hot poker trick. Heat a metal rod (eg a fireside poker) and run it around the metal inside the area of where the two slides overlap. Keep it moving to distribute the heat well. Once you can feel some heat coming through the wood (or before that if you are nervous, which would seem like a reasonable response), try twisting the head and barrel sections apart.

[DavieD]

Thank you for your advice, Paddler.
I dismounted the keys and heated the two parts up (70°C) in the oven and they came apart easily.
And thanks for the information as well.
It seems to me, that the pitch might be lower than A=440 Hz.
The head is only partially lined, Terry.