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I was just gifted a beautiful Dolmetsch wooden soprano recorder. Even I can hear how much better it sounds than my Aulos plastic soprano. A doting father gave it to his daughter, who never played it. It's mint. Only two sections. I'm told that it's made from Israeli olive wood It's blonde and really sounds lovely. I'll only play it for 10 minutes tonight and for several weeks.

My Aulos came with a tin of wax for the joints. The Dolmetsch sections fit together snugly; not too tight. Should I use a bit of the wax on the cork, or do I need a different wax than what came with my plastic Aulos? (The hard shell box carrying case for the Dolmetsch has an insert for a tin of wax, but the was is missing.)

It's said that I should oil this every 2-3 months; I'm going to assume that that's not happened. Any special oil?

sorry for all the newbie questions!

I like the Doctor's products for use with my clarinet.

For Jeffrey: the wax should work the same for each. There should be no problem. For oil, there are a lot of opinions. Some are mineral based and others are simple such as almond oil, but they all have people who support them and others who say they have problems. (For example, almond oil can go rancid.) One relatively safe option is buying bore oil that would be used for wood winds from a music store.

Regarding Doctor’s Products
Doctor’s Products sells both oil and cork grease. The maker is a research chemist who made plant based products. Doctors’s Products can be found here http://doctorsprod.com/cbuy/


awildman: which of the products do you use? I bought some recently in anticipation of getting my flute.

Thanks all. Lazar's early music store is just down the road (well, down the traffic hell freeway) from me. I called them today and they're sending me a Moeck maintenance kit which, now that I look, doesn't contain cork wax. A woman on the phone mentioned which oil is included but I've forgotten. In any case, I think that I'll go with this.

As it turns out this woman (Ms. Lazar?) and friends do frequent concerts at the Church just up the street from me ("I know exactly where you live!" she said.) So now I'm on the email list. Sweet! My home town is big on early music.

It's hard only playing my new wood recorder for fifteen minutes a day! It does seem a bit balky when I hit high f and f sharp. I'm backing off on the high notes for now.

AaronFW wrote: awildman: which of the products do you use? I bought some recently in anticipation of getting my flute.

Bore oil and cork grease (the chapstick variety). It's been a long time since I used them - my instrument has been under the weather. Both are nice to use, and the oil is so much more pleasant than the LeBlanc stuff that came with my instrument.

I use Hetman synthetic oil for the keys.