Mesquite for flutes?

[AngelicBeaver]

I live in Texas, so we have a lot of mesquite here. I know it's used in furniture quite often, but I was curious if anyone had experimented with its use in wooden flutes.

[bradhurley]

It's used for Native American flutes; I've never seen an Irish-style flute made of mesquite but I don't get out much.

Some uilleann pipes makers use mesquite for the tubes of their drone reeds; my pipes' drone reeds are mesquite with spruce tongues.

[an seanduine]

Mesquite has a lot of wind-shake and wind-wrack, so getting clear turning blanks is always problematic. It is very tough on tools and suffers from a lot of tear-out if you take deep cuts. But it is dense, hard and stable. My advise, treat it like metal, and try to get it cheap so you won´t fear tossing the workpiece aside when a defect emerges.

Bob

[chas]

I've turned some mesquite. The biggest problem is that it's porous. The only way to make the bore smooth is to use a fairly heavy finish.