Hi all.
I just purchased an antique boxwood flute which is incredibly dry at the moment. I am looking for suggestions regard which oil I should use on the flute. Slowly hydrating at the moment. Playing for short intervals. Signs of life reappearing.
Arbo
I asked this question of Patrick Olwell regarding my boxwood Olwell flute and this was his reply:
“The best oils for wooden flutes are olive and almond. Almond oil can oxidize and turn
rancid. The clear sweet almond oil sold in pharmacies in Ireland and Britain seems to be
purified and less likely to go bad than the “cold pressed” almond oil from health food
stores. Adding a small amount of Vitamin E as an antioxidant will preserve the oil, as
will refrigerating the container. Raw linseed oil (flax-seed oil) is sometimes used to treat
new flutes, especially more porous woods like boxwood. It should not be used for followup
maintenance, as it is a hardening oil and will “gel up” in the bore.”
Hope that helps.
Mandoboy
I have used the Bore Doctor for a few years and have had no problems.
Pat
Hey Arbo,
My favorite flute oil is Pure Tongue Oil. It forms a hard finish (takes about a month to dry). So I just keep anointing the bore with it prior to playing for about a month. I’m not painting the bore with it, so it doesn’t really build, just forms a hard skin.
I also like to get oil on old dried out flutes as soon as possible. The dry wood drinks up the oil! If you wait till the flute is hydrated, well then it just isn’t as thirsty anymore.
The Almond, Olive, Walnut… oils are more like moisturizers, they don’t really form a finish.
Enjoy your new tooter!
When I asked Patrick Olwell this question, he gave me a sheet that explained why almond or olive oil are superior to bore oils because they penetrate while bore oil just sits on the surface. Sounded very convincing. But all the other makers whose websites I’ve seen recommend bore oil and a top repairman in L.A. (guess who?) said he wouldn’t put olive oil on anything but a salad! Since all these guys know a lot lot more than me, I’ve just concluded that there is no consensus. Me, I use bore oil because I wonder if vegetable or nut oils can attract little moldy green stuff, but I’m sure many people will say that is ridiculous. The only thing I can add is that wood doesn’t just keep drying with age. (Not much anyway). It reaches a stable point when it is seasoned and then its moisture content is controlled by the ambient humidity and whether it is played. So you seem to be going about things exactly right. The fact that it is an antique should not make it more seriously dry than any unplayed seasoned flute. At least that is my understanding and I know a bit about wood. But if more experienced makers or repairers think otherwise, I’d be interested to hear what they have to say.
Here is a very informative article by Ray Dessy of Virginia Tech. He’s talking about recorders but it all applies equally to flutes.
http://www.recorderhomepage.net/wood.html
My recommendation to customers is to use either a commercial bore oil or unscented mineral oil.
Dave Copley
Loveland Ohio
Hi Dave,
I follow your advice on both the lovely D and E flat blackwood flutes you made for me and they are in great shape. Am curious as to whether you agree that an antique flute should not be dryer than an unplayed seasoned flute kept in the same relative humidity. I don’t want to mislead the OP or anyone else. Thanks
I think it would be true that the flutes would end up with similar water content, in equilibrium with the humidity level they are stored in. There could be a difference because of the very slow evaporation of oil which could result in the wood of the antique being less resilient and liable to soak up moisture faster when it is played.
Makes sense. Thanks again.
My suggestion to Arbo would be to start the oiling with raw linseed oil and apply it warm. Give it another application when the previously applied oil has soaked in, and keep on doing this until no more oil is absorbed. Let it sit a few days and wipe off any oil that appears on the surface. Then change over to a non-drying oil (unscented mineral oil, commercial bore oil) and oil once a week for the next month. After that you should be able to oil once per month with the non-drying oil.
I did something similar to David’s suggestion earlier this year with an old early C19th D’Almaine & Co. 4-keyer. It had been long disused and seemed to have been left lying in spilt ink or something similar at some point, so had some odd dark stains. I had to try to remove as much of the stain as I could (knowing in boxwood that complete removal was impossible), so I scrubbed it down with detergent and water, tried both meths and acetone and then tried applications of both ammonia and peroxide based bleaches. This did reduce the staining significantly, though as expected couldn’t eradicate it. Of course the wood had been well soaked in water in the process, so further hydration wasn’t really needed. (Happily Arbo’s flute doesn’t need such extreme treatment!)
I let it dry for a few days, then set about re-oiling inside and out. I started with a 50/50 of real turpentine and raw linseed (the turpentine should improve penetration) and painted the flute with that in the manner David describes, until it seemed to stop absorbing. Then I repeated the process with pure raw linseed. Once that had settled, I then applied several coats of Renaissance Wax to seal it. The flute seems to have settled down well. I’ll give it more Ren. Wax before returning it to its owner (it’s still with me). BUT, I’d emphasise this re-oiling treatment, whilst based on much reading around the issue, was something of an experiment - I haven’t done anything like it before and it hasn’t been tested long term.
I will add that generally I am rather dubious about the whole idea of wood “absorbing” oil to any significant degree - more so with the waxy tropical hardwoods. I think box probably does actually take some into its structure, but my feeling/impression/suspicion (not very scientific!) from all I’ve gleaned on the subject plus from handling flutes is that in general what goes in and out of the wood is water, and oil doesn’t much, but it is a surface sealant to regulate/stabilise/limit the amount of water coming and going. So it seems to me, the logic of that with dessicated boxwood (so very hygroscopic!) would be to rehydrate to a good medium level, perhaps in line with your normal ambient conditions to optimise stability, then seal that in (so far as that is possible) with oil and use oil to keep it from absorbing lots more water in playing.
I agree with Jem’s practice of thinning the linseed oil with turpentine. On the topic of how deeply the oil is absorbed, it does seem to vary with the type of wood. I have oiled the bore of a Mopane flute and had some of the oil appear on the outer surface having soaked right through. I have also tried oiling one surface of a very thin (1 mm) piece of African blackwood and seen no evidence of any oil penetrating through the piece. Boxwood would be on the more absorbent end of the scale.
Another great document from the Recorder Homepage:
http://www.recorderhomepage.net/good-oil.pdf
His plan of allowing several months between applications of oil sounds attractive, though I think I would be a little nervous about waiting that long with an instrument made from a non-oily wood.
I’ve been getting good results with jojoba oil.
Thank you all for some very usefull information!