Just wondering—lot’s of folks worry about their wooden flutes cracking. So I’d like to know, from the Chiff experience, who has had a flute (or any other wooden instrument) crack on them and why. Probably best to not mention what the maker is.
I’ve had one flute that cracked in the main tenon between the headjoint and the body. I think it was caused by the cork being too tight (i.e. not weather related). It was easily fixed and is not a problem now.
A friend of mine had an acoustic guitar crack when he took it too the dry Sierra mountains in summer.
Other than that, I’ve had (have) many wooden flutes and guitars with no active use of a humidifier even though it’s very dry where I live during the summer (around 20% humidity), and had no other cracks than the one flute.
What’s your experience?
PS–my hypothesis is that cracks are rare and are almost always easily fixed.
I had one barrel crack due to a defect in the wood. Replaced by maker.
Another a crack in the headjoint, away from the embouchure hole,
my fault. The humidity dropped to 35 and I didn’t respond effectively.
Much grief over this. The flute plays just the same, as there is
a fully lined head.
I have never had a flute crack or clarinet for that matter and my clarinet was over 50 years old. I think playing them often is part of the key which is why I try to keep it at one flute.
I’ve had two flutes, one piccolo, and one guitar crack. The modern flute had a lined head, which cracked and was replaced, not repaired, by the maker. The antique flute has had the crack repaired a couple of times, and it’s come back a third time. The antique piccolo hasn’t been fixed yet; we don’t want to send it to the guy who botched the flute twice. Haven’t had the guitar looked at yet; that one came out of nowhere.
I don’t know how many wooden instruments I have, but it’s in the dozens. I agree that cracks are rare, but that doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t worry about them, nor that finding a crack isn’t disappointing and a little scary. And apparently they’re not all so easily taken care of.
I’ve had an antique flute that cracked when I received. Well, it was a long journey and a different climate, so it wasn’t so unexpected.
I’ve also had some restored cracks that reopened, on antiques again.
Had only one flute crack, and I expect it was because I was an eejit on my own who didn’t know I should humidify it in arid winter. It cracked at the barrel, which is the typical location. Fortunately, said flute was also of Sialkot City derivation via Lark In The Morning. You could say that was money twice lost.
Dryness is the prime culprit. Vancouver is nearly always humid, and I’ve never worried or had a problem. Three weeks after I moved to dry Boulder Co for a year, I turned a boxwood traverso into firewood by forcing the head joint onto the tenon of the body, because I thoughtlessly didn’t ask myself why it was so tight. I had never lived in a dry climate before…
One of my flutes cracked in my hands as I played. It was my own stupid fault. It was a February flute lesson. Cold flute, cold room, unlined head, hot breath for just a few minutes. Spit dripped out the crack opposite the embouchure. Wow, was I surprised, but I shouldn’t have been, and it won’t ever happen again.
Lewis
I nearly wrecked a new head by following the letter rather than the spirit of the maker’s breaking in instructions. The room I played in was very cold so lots of condensation formed in a few minutes. Fortunately I felt a slight bulge opposite the embouchure hole and could see the grain slightly open with a lens. I followed the makers advice, it settled down, and two years later there is no sign of it.
I’ve honestly lost count, but I’m thinking 4 or 5. I helped (if you can call it that…) a friend who started to make flutes by trying his new types out. Some of them were made from woods not particularly suited to flutemaking (padouk, for example, which absorbed a lot of moisture), some were simply made with the walls of the heads too thin (they were all unlined and he was keen to get the weight down). Since then I think he switched supplier of wood and redesigned the flutes.
I’m the eejit that didn’t check the humidifier often enough when the humidity dropped REAL low (7%) for a couple of weeks this summer. Antique flute, lined head, cracked through the emboucher. If it was my primary playing flute I would have been tending it every day. Sometimes I think it’s better to just have one flute.
Joking aside, IMO humidification is the most important thing you should do during arid conditions if you have a wooden instrument at rest and want to preserve its structural integrity. You can oil it all you want, but without humidification when needed, it will still dry out in due course and be at risk. Like Akiba, you may have no trouble, but I’ve learned “better safe than sorry”. Of course, as one flutemaker put it, “Sometimes a piece of wood just doesn’t want to be a flute,” but that’s a different case. And humidifying applies to other wooden instruments as well: I had a cittern’s soundboard crack wide enough to be beyond repair because I didn’t humidify it in its case as I ought to have once the humidity dropped low, but instead kept it out on a stand so I could look at and admire it. Takes some expensive hard knocks to get a clue, sometimes.
