scottie wrote:
I am pretty sure the upper portion of mine is suppose to come off and has a cork ring because I remember putting cork grease on it years ago before it was stored away.
Yes, it is a two piece recorder - head and body. The foot is integral to the body and non-adjustable. The head is removable. The body joint tenon is corked. The head joint mortise stops at the last turned bead just above the finger holes.
It is likely that the cork grease you remember applying years ago has dehydrated and become an adhesive of sorts. Hopefully MTGuru's Plan A works. It is what I would suggest as well. Worst case should be that the cork breaks up and needs replacing. That's an easy and cheap fix if it happens.
Beware that there are instances where the wood in the joints, usually due to ambient moisture levels, can swell to the point where the joint will not break loose. If you feel that the joint is that tight I would not suggest overdoing the twisting. You want to avoid cracking either the tenon or mortise. The twisting motion should be concentric with the axis of the bore of the instrument. So just work at it with some common sense.
Most of the major manufacturers of recorders (Mollenhuaer, Moeck, Kung (maybe), etc.) have a care and feeding section somewhere on their websites as do recorder societies and similar interest groups. So you might browse through some of those for advice as well.
Plan B sounds ominous enough without the details.
Feadoggie