four month old flute cracks

[PB+J]

Thank you David and Geoffrey, very much

[Steampacket]

Sorry to hear about your Olwell flute cracking after four months. You seem to have done everything right as regards preventive care. I've often heard of Sam Murray flutes cracking, but not of an Olwell flute cracking before. I don't think it's your fault but rather as Dave Copley wrote, an undetected flaw in the timber. I have an Olwell Pratten made 2000, which lives in the living room in a soft roll. I never oil it, just give it a quick swab now and then, and it's been fine. I also have Rudall flutes from the 1840's - 1892. They live in their original boxes with a piece of damp sponge in a metal bottle top. I never oil them either. Temperature inside the room is 18-20 centigrade during the winter, -3 to -12 outside depending winter time.

[PB+J]

The middle section of the flute will be heading to Patrick Olwell for repair tomorrow. I won't reveal the details of a private email exchange but Mr Olwell is a gentleman

[Steampacket]

...but Mr Olwell is a gentleman. PB+J

Yes, unlike another flute maker.

[Qiufan Zhu]

...but Mr Olwell is a gentleman. PB+J

Yes, unlike another flute maker.

Sam Murray

[PB+J]

As far as oiling goes, I just got this in an email from a well known maker

"NEVER USE A VEGETABLE OIL ON YOUR BLACKWOOD FLUTE!!!!!

That's the best way to kill it....

Only mineral oil."

Meanwhile the Olwell website says the opposite and suggests almond oil, which is what I have been using

[Conical bore]

Meanwhile the Olwell website says the opposite and suggests almond oil, which is what I have been using

Flute maker opinions do vary on this. My first wooden flute was a keyless Windward in blackwood. The Windward web site says the following: "We recommend a synthetic hypo-allergenic food safe bore oil by Alisyn, NOT a semi-hardening oil, like almond oil, which congeals and spoils." So that's what I've been using, a generic bore oil for wooden wind instruments like clarinets sold by a local music store. I think it's mostly mineral oil.

Frankly, there is so little take-up of oil on my three wooden flutes -- all purchased used, two in blackwood and one in cocus -- that I only bother to oil them twice a year, if that. Bore oiling would seem to be something more important when first breaking in a flute?

Another thing I do that was recommended on the Windward web site is occasional light waxing of the outer surface of my wooden flutes with cork wax. I think the idea was to preserve the finish, but it may also prevent too-fast drying of the outer layer of the wood if a sudden change in humidity is encountered.

It definitely does prevent that very dry look of the wood around the embouchure hole after enough playing, and may help to prevent cracking at that vulnerable point. I rub a tiny bit of cork wax around the embouchure hole after every playing or practice session. Currently I'm using D'Addario cork wax, a "natural" hypoallergenic wax that's basically beeswax with some natural additives.

[Terry McGee]

I'm with the anonymous maker. I did try other oils (including peanut oil earnestly recommended in one book - it proved useless and ghastly!) when I was getting going with making, but came back to using the oils the manufacturers of clarinets recommend. Almond oil was fashionable back in the baroque to romantic periods, but I've not seen any reasons to have confidence in it.

Not that I think this is an element in the split occuring in this flute. That looks like a seasoning fault to me. Often very hard to spot during the making process, and very annoying to find after putting all the work in! The kind of cracks that occur due to interior swelling from failure to swab or oil are very angry looking cracks. And this is a very unusual place for a crack to form anyway. A tenon is under compression, unlike a socket. But it's at the end of the piece, where seasoning cracks occur. Look at the ends of your firewood for examples.

[waltsweet]

I've seen dozens of antiques, some with obvious signs of neglect; in many cases, there are no cracks, so I de-emphasize the processing of lumber (the seasoning) or the handling of the finished instruments. I've sent several loads of timber to the sawmill (not flutewood), and the growing patterns are obviously to blame for defects that appear "off the blade" and others that develop in the drying pile, months later. Problems come from knots, of course, and any side-growth (branching). By the time time the lumber reaches the maker, there's no way to see that the top of the tree had been leaning, putting internal stresses on a lower section of wood; in the shop, more cutting results in more movement along every axis, ad infinitum. And what if the tree had sun on only one side; or better water or nutrition from only one lateral root? Or weather patterns over the decades, resulting in irregular growth rings? These can't possibly shrink uniformly. Or do we really want the outer circumference to shrink less so it doesn't make a gap? Maybe we need a minimum distance from the core (flatter growth rings).

On YouTube, you can see the painstaking effort in selecting spruce for piano soundboards. Much wood doesn't make the cut! https://youtu.be/xFkYNdB0xJM

Carefully seasoning can do only so much, then we cull the herd. Blackwood billets come encased in wax, so more seasoning occurs in my hands than elsewhere. Still, some defects don't show 'til later (musical time-bombs!), and I think that may be the case with your flute. I think it's reasonable to ask for a replacement component. I'm confident that the maker will appreciate the opportunity to make it right with you.

Of course, don't leave your blackwood fife on the dashboard of your car in the summer. Don't store your fine flute near the radiator in winter. I've never been a fan of pinning because I understand that the wood is fighting itself, and a pin will only find a new "weakest link". If I had to repair a crack in a fife, the worst type is the hairline crack. Before filling with superglue, I like to gouge-out a wide V, relieving stresses; doing so also increases the surface for adhesion and gives the filler-bead its own integrity.