is this the right type of oil and if so how long should a 75ml bottle if oiling once a month and also is it possible to start using this in preference of almond oil?
There have been mixed opinions here over the years regarding the best way to oil a flute. To my knowledge, no one has argued against using commercial woodwind bore oil, and that’s what several makers recommend for their flutes. It’s cheap and readily available, so I’ve gone with that approach.
Personally, I very much like the artist grade refined Linseed Oil! I bought a quart of it about 6 years ago and have only used perhaps 1/3 of it. But this includes several flute baths and small vials of it I have given away with flutes I sold or traded off.
I like drying oils, they coat the wood and cure to a hard surface (protecting the bore).
Anoint the bore with the oil and all will be fine. Just don’t soak the flute and let it sit, wipe away the excess (or it can form a gunky mess). I’ve read that it takes Refined Linseed Oil at least 40 days to cure.
But as fond as I am of refined Linseed Oil, I’ll have to concede that commercial bore oil affords better protection (lasts longer). Just don’t get any around the outside of the embouchure, tastes horrid!
It’s fine stuff if you can stand the smell. I don’t mind the smell of an art studio, I just don’t want my flute to smell like one. I prefer the smell of wood.
As a general rule of thumb, don’t use anything that you wouldn’t eat yourself. Many commercial woodwind bore oils contain petroleum distillates which are proven to have ill effects on ones health. I prefer to use flaxseed oil, or a close second would be pressed walnut oil. I used to use almond oil, but it gets gummy over time. I would imagine if you you used linseed oil without any drying agents added, it would be fine too. It seems that the food safe stuff is generally marketed as flaxseed, and the art grade stuff is marketed as linseed, but they are virtually one in the same.
I very rarely use any oil, and when I do it is commercial bore oil. You only need to sue it once every 6 months, if you use Almond oil, it doesn’t last that long. I have just bought 2 small bottles, and still have one full bottle. this is with 20 antique flutes in my shop…
i’ve bounced around from “raw” linseed oil to almond, jojoba, flaxseed, and dr. bore’s oil,. i don’t oil that often, and mostly only oil newly made flutes. i prefer the ‘raw’ linseed oil over the rest of them, not sure exactly why but i feel it works best on cocuswood (could most likely be the placebo effect).
if you choose linseed oil, be sure it is “raw” linseed oil.
Hi all,
I use highly refined almond oil and get it at the chemist store. It costs a bit more but you can do a lot of flutes with it. Being the husband of an artist painter I know that the linseed loil is to mix with oil paint and isn’t so innocent as it seems. I can find myself with a former poster that if it isn’t eatable you don’t use it. I buy it in a dark bottle because oils mostly age through the sunlight/light. We don’t have bear or otter fat over here so that is out of the question. If almond oil is good for body and limb its certainly good for flutes and in the time I use the chemist high refined oil I can’t find any gunk. Oiling around the holes is important for cracks so with AO you don’t have to worry about taste. Leave linseed for the painters. In every book I have read almond oil is (almost) always recommended. This is my experience. Take care,
Ron
I’d recommend staying away from linseed oil too. I used it for a few years on my first flute found it messy and gunky and don’t like what it did to the bore.
I’m playing a different flute now but started using Almond Oil which I find less messy and puts a nice thin film on the bore
I can’t agree more Connie like I said if you use the good almond oil, it runs like water, you leave the flutes standing over night and wipe all off; no sweat!
… and no oil either.
If the bore has been sealed by previous oiling ( I give my flutes a tung oil bath at production), it will take up nothing when you oil it.
You can get a very thin coat of oil ( I’m talking microns here) on the surface but not if you wipe everything dry before it has hardened. Almond oil takes forever to harden.
My advise would be: oil your flute once when you buy it. Total immersion in warm tung oil ( 35 to 40 °C) for at least 24 h will do the job. Wipe off any excess ( don’t wipe it dry !). Leave it to dry for a week or two. Play.
Hi Lucas, I checked out your website, looks great and great flutes. I don’t live far from you. I can’t figure out what tung oil is but I thought the oil is to prevent water going into the grain of the wood. I think ALL oil is wiped out at some stage when the flute is regularly dried out with a cloth so now and then applying a very thin coat of oil wouldn’t do harm I should think…
Tung oil is a drying oil also known as chinese woodoil. It dries fairly quickly and is very resistant. It is also used for table tops and so.
What you want is indeed stop water going into the wood. The best way to do this is by sealing the wood completely.
Flutemakers are softies and we don’t want to say to our customers : " I’ve sealed your flute with a high-end industrial polyurethane sealer. It’s very toxic to work with, but very safe once applied". So we use high-end ‘organic’ stuff like tung oil, nature’s best drying oil.
Once this oil is hardened you can only remove it mechanically or chemically. So if you don’t dry out your flute with steel wool or drink pure alcohol while fluting, it will last a very long time.
Almond oil on the other hand takes ages to dry. So if you apply a thin coat of almond oil and wipe out your flute three times nothing of it will be left.
For the record, I never oil my own flutes ( except for the tung oil bath) . My advice to people who buy my flutes ( I can’t really call them customers) is simple: you don’t NEED to oil, but you can if you want as long as you don’t overdo it.
so you are all suggesting that I stick with the almond oil. I was wondering because I was sick of oiling every two weeks with almond oil (i like the playing the playing qualities of a freshly oiled flute). I’ve been playing traditional flute for 10+years on a hamilton keyless-i never realy found use for the keys until now and i am going to order a hamilton 6-keyed(cant wait!! ) and was wondering about what to use on the new flute even though it wont be here for a good while.
a problem with oiling is that it can gunk up inside the bore if you don’t wipe out excess oil. apply a coat of oil, let it set for a few hours. then be sure to wipe off the excess. don’t let it build up.
oh, i would suggest use the oil hammy recommends, i know i do…
) the one in these pages:
