Antique Irish(?) flute

[Jon C.]

I carefully score it with a craft knife then work the hemp off the tenon. Don't cut to deep, so as to to score the trough, but just enough to cut through the upper layer.

[Aaronjw]

Well, I got all of the tenons rehemped. I haven't gotten any wax or tac yet, but I played a few notes and it seems to have a really nice sound.

Unfortunately, I've also noticed a couple of more cracks in two of the other sections. Nothing to be done about that for now though, I suppose.

[an seanduine]

Yes. Some of these French Flutes can be very nice and strong players. Have a little caution about how long you play it at any one time. Some condensation is fine. Wet, not so much. If it is Cocus it will, over time, take up a surprising amount of moisture. You don't want to make any cracks appreciably worse. Some cracks are 'wind shake' cracks and can be closed and quite stable. Others will require some action.
I would suggest using a bright light (L.E.D flashlights are good) as a sidelight and a glass (I use a 4X magnifying binocular) to look for any stamps or makers marks. This may be quite faint, and surprisingly may become more prominent as the flute hydrates.

Bob

[Aaronjw]

Got some blu tack and plugged up the key holes, and taped up a couple of cracks. The low D was a bit tough to sound, but other than that, it's playing pretty nicely. One of the sections still seems to be losing a bit of air, but I can't seem to get it any better than it is. I've emailed a guy in Houston, named Larry Mallette, who I've been told works on flutes like this. To be totally honest, as I'm pretty inexperienced with flutes in general, I don't feel all that confident doing much more with this than I already have; I have no idea how I would go about replacing pads, much less dealing with the cracks. I've got a few friends in Houston, so if Mr. Mallette is amenable to working on it, I may take a road trip down there in a few weeks to see my friends and give him the flute to work on.

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

I play an old French 8 key like that, it had copper sockets which had caused it to crack all to hell, a major repair job. The sockets all had to be removed to get all the verdigris off - this is toxic green corrosion like you see on old statues, you don't want that in the bore of a wind instrument, to point out the obvious.

My flute plays itself, though, so worth it in the end.

[an seanduine]

Hmm, Kevin, can't tell from the OP's pictures, but the sockets appear to be maillechort. My dealer's flute, marked Douglas and Co. of London, of clearly French manufacture is considerably newer, and has high quality maillechort, and wouldn't know what verdegris was if it came up and bit it. . .The German alloys, typically made under the patent for Alppaca will tarnish appreciably. Haven't really been up close to any RR or similar English flutes with so-called GS (German Silver) furnishings. Maybe they avoid the problem by using Brittania Metal which is also quite tarnish resistant.

Bob

[Jon C.]

Hmm, Kevin, can't tell from the OP's pictures, but the sockets appear to be maillechort. My dealer's flute, marked Douglas and Co. of London, of clearly French manufacture is considerably newer, and has high quality maillechort, and wouldn't know what verdegris was if it came up and bit it. . .The German alloys, typically made under the patent for Alppaca will tarnish appreciably. Haven't really been up close to any RR or similar English flutes with so-called GS (German Silver) furnishings. Maybe they avoid the problem by using Brittania Metal which is also quite tarnish resistant.

Bob

verdegris is just the green slime seen on nickel, brass and copper parts. All the French flutes I have worked on used silver for the sockets. They will crack the sockets, when the wood shrinks around the liner...

[Aaronjw]

verdegris is just the green slime seen on nickel, brass and copper parts. All the French flutes I have worked on used silver for the sockets. They will crack the sockets, when the wood shrinks around the liner...

That seems to be what has happened on mine. The two cracks I most recently noticed are on the called sockets. Just wondering, what's the point of putting silver caps on the socket to reinforce it, if they're just going to cause the wood to crack?

[Jon C.]

verdegris is just the green slime seen on nickel, brass and copper parts. All the French flutes I have worked on used silver for the sockets. They will crack the sockets, when the wood shrinks around the liner...

That seems to be what has happened on mine. The two cracks I most recently noticed are on the called sockets. Just wondering, what's the point of putting silver caps on the socket to reinforce it, if they're just going to cause the wood to crack?

Well, it seemed like a great idea at the time... 150years later it cracks, who can plan for that? (except Terry McGee)

[an seanduine]

Well it must be the relative 'youth' of my flute. . .a spring chicken at 90+ years, and no crack in the reinforced sockets of the body. Predictably I had to deal with a crack in the tuning barrel, but the cracking was at the opposite end to the reinforced socket. Go figure.

Bob

[Jon C.]

Well it must be the relative 'youth' of my flute. . .a spring chicken at 90+ years, and no crack in the reinforced sockets of the body. Predictably I had to deal with a crack in the tuning barrel, but the cracking was at the opposite end to the reinforced socket. Go figure.

Bob

There are some factors that go into it,; curing time of the wood, type of wood, if the flute spent the majority of it's time in a humid climate, did the maker allow for some shrinkage, is the socket wall thin, etc. I have seen lined socket uncracked, but as Terry points out on his website, eventually the cellular structure of the wood will collapse, as the wood drys out, and meet with the unmoving metal liner... The ticking time bomb...

[an seanduine]

Yup. And if I were to build this flute today I would probably follow Terry's method. However, as it is now, since it is my everyday flute, and I live in a humid climate, and I keep huffin' and puffin', and God willin' and the crick don't rise. . .

Bob

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Hmm, Kevin, can't tell from the OP's pictures, but the sockets appear to be maillechort. My dealer's flute, marked Douglas and Co. of London, of clearly French manufacture is considerably newer, and has high quality maillechort, and wouldn't know what verdegris was if it came up and bit it. . .The German alloys, typically made under the patent for Alppaca will tarnish appreciably. Haven't really been up close to any RR or similar English flutes with so-called GS (German Silver) furnishings. Maybe they avoid the problem by using Brittania Metal which is also quite tarnish resistant.

Bob

Yeah, I could tell it was nickel silver of some sort, but thought I'd pass on my own experience and give the owner a head's up anyway, since all sorts of metal corrode and you likely don't want to be breathing in its condensation any more than necessary.

To save readers the bother of looking this stuff up maillechort and Alppaca are just more names for nickel silver, i.e., alloys of zinc/copper/nickel. One document I came across gives maillechort as 60-63 Cu, 17-19 Ni, "rest" Zn. Depending on the proportions they can be easier or harder to work, tarnish more or less readily, etc. The price doesn't seem to vary much, really, from what I've gathered.

Britannia metal is "typically 92% tin, 6% antimony, and 2% copper," I seriously doubt you're going to make any kind of musical instrument with such flimsy stuff. German/nickel silver is usually "60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc." A friend who builds uilleann pipes and did all my flute repairs is a bit desperate trying to get more of the proper alloy as the local supplier seems to have run out/aren't exactly easy to deal with. He needs the precise amount of each metal or the color just isn't right, he knows from having tried that it will be too hard to work as well. So there's that. They're all a pain to work in comparison to brass, too, being much more harder and brittle.

[Aaronjw]

It turns out that the woodwind repair person at the University of North Texas, just half an hour away from me, has experience working on wooden flutes like mine. It would have cost $300 to get it all fixed, but she said she could do everything but repairing the broken key for only $100. I figure I'll put a rubber band or something around the key to hold it down so that I can play the flute minus that one note. If I ever have a couple hundred bucks lying around (or if I decide to try to sell it), I'll have it fixed, but for now, this should suit me just fine. I should have it back in a week or two; I'll let ya'll know how it turns out!

[an seanduine]

Sounds good. As a long term solution to your key repair, you might try contacting Lars Kirmser,http://www.musictrader.com/, and get a bid. He regularly fabricates replacement keys, and has a large stock of replacement keys of various sorts on hand. Among his other activities, Lars runs a vocational arts instrument repair school and administers the Yahoo Instrument Repair Technicians group. Good luck!

Bob