Mesquite for flutes?
- AngelicBeaver
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Mesquite for flutes?
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.
Nathaniel James Dowell
- bradhurley
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Re: Mesquite for flutes?
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.
Some uilleann pipes makers use mesquite for the tubes of their drone reeds; my pipes' drone reeds are mesquite with spruce tongues.
- an seanduine
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Re: Mesquite for flutes?
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
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- chas
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Re: Mesquite for flutes?
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.
Charlie
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"Our work puts heavy metal where it belongs -- as a music genre and not a pollutant in drinking water." -- Prof Ali Miserez.