We have a couple of old flutes that developed cracks, so given the recent acquisition of several wooden whistles and flutes, I made up a simple humidor. Tupperware and a cigar humidifier. It keeps a pretty constant 65% humidity. Since I’ve been storing the flutes and whistles in there, a Thin Weasel flute has developed extremely tight joints, a Casey Burns extremely loose joints, and an Abell whistle has a frozen tuning slide. I suspect this is all coincidence, since the TW is new and the Abell tuning slide is metal-on-metal.
Is there a consensus on whether the humidor is a good idea? The humidity in our house varies all over creation, and very quickly. OTOH, we have a humidifier for the music room for the winter, so it doesn’t get all that dry. Any advice would be appreciated.
Why would you be storing wooden whistles or Flutes assembles. Two separate pieces even made of the same material are going to move differently. I believe they should only be assembled when you are playing them after playing they should be swabbed out and stored separately.
Where abouts are you? I’m in Ireland so lack of humidity is not a problem! I just mop the flute out quickly but not to thoroughly , dry the joints and leave the rag open in the sealed case.
It was once suggested to me by a maker that there is no better way of maintaining a constant water content than by playing the instrument regularly, mopping it out (not too dry) and storing it sensibly afterwards (ie. if in dry conditions put it in a sealed case with a damp mop rag along with it).
Hammy Hamilton also gave me the great tip of placing the flute, case and all, in a large, air tight zip lock bag (the sort used for keeping food fresh) when taking the flute into an area with a different humidity to keep it steady when being stored.
Hi: I play my flute every day, too, which I think is good for it, but I got this idea off the Flute forum a while back (maybe from Loren). I keep my flute in a tupperware container with a tiny perforated tupperware container inside of it. I have a wet paper towel in the perforated container, and my humidity gauge tells me the flute stays at an even 60% all the time. It is just as good now as the day I received it ~ corks are perfect, and now that I know better than to wipe off all the slide grease…
Mary
I live on Long Island, very humid (90%) in the summer and down to dry (45 - 50%) in the winter. I also keep my flute, unassembled and in it own wooden box inside of a largerer Tupperware container. I put a moist sponge inside of plastic toothbrush traveling container with holes punched in it. I keep the guage in the wooden box and it maintains between 70% and 80% humidity winter and summer. Things seem to remain in good shape this way.
The problem with tupperware or sealed bags (probably fine for temporary travel – don’t want to question Hammy!) is that there’s no air exchange and the humidity gets very high --you stand a good likelihood of your flute developing mold or mildew. If the flute is played regularly, it’ll be fairly humidified already and you don’t want to then add too much humidity on top of that. What you want is to maintain the humidity and slow down any drying. My flute (a Hamilton)was made in Ireland, not the tropics, and having it at 80% + in a warm house or apartment will eventually create mold. Keeping your flute in its case, with its dampened cleaning swab (from playing!), inside a perforated tupperware container or something similar, will allow humidity to hang in and dissipate very slowly with some air flow around to avoid things either molding over or drying out ‘til you play next time.
Also probably a good thing, too, Bill, in our dry-heat-in-winter neck o’ the woods, to run a humidifier in our apt. or houses anyway, especially the rooms slept in and that store any wooden instruments you may own. Can’t play with chapped lips or dry throats, and you won’t need to be as drastic in your flute storage habits, either.
I always keep my flute fully assembled and immersered in a wooden rain barrel when it’s not being played, never had any problems. Bezelbub Maguire, Cork, makes quality watertight wooden rain barrels. Mind you he has a 4 year waiting list
Could we get you to do a complete review of McGuire’s rain barrels comparing his to other’s in your collection? Also are they available in different materials? You said there is a waiting list, could he be persuaded with the offer of a pint or two to move a person up the list quicker? Does he make the barrels in different sizes to better contain different keyed flutes? Does he make a model for pennywhistle? Pictures? Shipping charges? Does he accept MasterCard?
Thanks for the info and look forward to your review. I guess I’ll have to make do with my watertight Pelican case with purge valve until my name comes up on McGuire’s list. I wonder if I should put in an order for two and sell the extra to pay for the one I keep?
Bezelbub just makes the one model rain barrel in seasoned oak with copper hoops, and which comes with a velvet lined, cherry wood carying case with small rubber wheels attached. Price, depends.
No, Bezelbub accepts no plastic. Cash only, regular euros that is, no Micky Mouse dollars, francs etc.
The rainbarrel is three feet eight inces high and roughly two feet in diameter. A smaller, about half the size, rain barrel can be ordered for fife owners. This is a concession, due to a small number of unfortunate incidents, for which Bezelbud accepts no responsiblity, whereby three, perhaps four barrel owners have drowned trying to retrieve their fifes from the standard sized barrel.
Bezelbud doesn’t own a camera, a telephone, or a computor. You have to visit him and talk with him for a few hours and play some tunes before he’ll even put you on the waiting list
There’s no shipping charge as you have to go and fetch the barrel in person when it’s ready. Don’t even think about ordering a barrel from Bezelbub then trying to sell it after a few months at a profit.
Hate to ask a question on the original topic, but …
When storing flutes in containers which are not completely submersed, what kind of a humidity gauge fits in a small space? I use a paper thingy that comes with Dampit humidifiers, but I’m sure it’s not at all accurate. How do you know it’s 65% and not 40% or 80% ?
When storing flutes in containers which are not completely submersed, what kind of a humidity gauge fits in a small space?
At the suggestion of this board, I got a few from a tobacconist. They use 'em in cigar humidors; they’re not tiny, but about 1.5" in diameter and 1/4" or so thick, so they wouldn’t fit in a flute case. I tested them against each other and against a cheapie that came with a room humidifier, and if they all read wrong, at least they read wrong the same.
On 2002-09-25 18:23, BruceW wrote:
…, but I’m sure it’s not at all accurate. How do you know it’s 65% and not 40% or 80% ?
Thanks,
Bruce
You can also get small humidity guages (approx. 1" in diameter) from woodworking supply stores.
Test the accuracy by wrapping the guage in a damp towel for 20-30 minutes. They should then read close to 100%. Some guages can be corrected by removing the glass and adjusting the needle. Mine reads low by approx. 15%, so I just keep my case at an indicated 45-60%, and know that it’s really around 60-75%.
Having read quite a bit about various humidity gauges on the Martin Guitar Forum, where someone compared a bunch against a known accurate Scientific grade humidity measuring device…Seems that most of the cheapies do vary widely, and so may be more harm than good in some ways: If the Hygrometer reads 15% above actual RH, then you could be in danger of suffering a cracked instrument.
According to the results of the tests I read about, one of the most highly accurate and fairly inexpensive humidity gauges is an electronic unit made by Oregon Scientific. I believe these are actually available with a remote sensor that can placed in the humidor or instrument case, and the gauge for reading (which is wireless) can be placed elsewhere - so you can check the humidity without opening the case or what have you.
Charlie, if your TW and Abell slides are sticking, it’s most likely due to oxidation build up on the slides. I’ve seen this before. Personally, I’m not a big fan of brass being used for unlubricated slides, it tends to get frozen much more easily than an unlubricated silver slide.
At any rate, the contraction of wood due to shrinkage wouldn’t cause tightening or freezing on either of those whistles - the wood will crack long before it could generate enough force to start deforming the slide tubing underneath.
If the joints on your flute are getting loose, the instrument is likely losing moisture…
Loren
P.S. The Oregon Scientific units can often be found on ebay as I recall - they are multi function devices that will read both temperature and humidity, and perhaps give some additional info as well.
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-09-30 08:42 ]
You should be within the right humidity range if you keep the flute in reasonably airtight container along with a damp sponge. Sponge seems to do a better job than damp cloth - maybe because of more surface area. Be careful not to include a lot of padding of wool or similar material, because that seems to dry out the enclosure. I also think that regular oiling of the bore and outside is just as important as humidification.
No one mentioned oiling the bore. Isn’t that part of the equasion?
It was my understanding, you oil the bore to help seal it from changes in humidity, making it more resistant and less likely to have problems like swelling and splitting.
