However, I have two personal peeves with Mopane when used for flutes:
First, as recently discussed here on the forum is the nuisance of the temporary discoloration of Mopane above the embouchure.
Second, is that Mopane is “whiskery” (it is difficult to keep it form developing whiskers of the grain standing up, especially in the bore).
The first is as mentioned a nuisance, I don’t think it has any real adverse effects. I’ve wondered if it will eventually culminate in the formation of whiskers in this area. But, alas I’ve never kept a Mopane flute long enough to find out. That’s just the way I am, changing flutes faster than the seasons.
The second does have a serious adverse effect upon the response and possibly tone of your flute. I had a used Casey Burns Folk flute with a whiskery bore and was surprised by how much the response improved after polishing the bore. I am not claiming this to be a fault with Casey’s flutes (he just makes a lot of flutes in Mopane). I’ve also had a Doyle and a McGee both in Mopane and both had whiskers developed in the bore.
I believe these whiskers have a snowballing effect...once the whiskers develop they hold more moisture and convey it beneath the grains, thus furthering and propagating the effect. I had wondered if the whiskers were due to improper breaking in of the flutes. So, in giving myself to science, I obtained a new Burns flute in Mopane. I have meticulously been breaking in the new flute and practically trying to pickle it in the Linseed Oil from Daniel Smith as recommended by Casey (actually I just keep liberally applying the oil every day or two). But unfortunately, the bore still developed whiskers. Therefore, I conclude that the whiskers are an inherent problem with Mopane and not due to a lack of vigilance during break-in.
Here is a picture of the tools I used for the polishing job:
Note* The tennons are taped to prevent contaminating the thread wraps with steel wool. The blue fabric is a piece of polyester fleece from one of the kids old sleeper pajamas. This material is very tough and fairly hard for fabric.
To remedy the problem you need to polish the bore of your flute. You only want to remove the offending whiskers, not any of the wooden walls of your flute. Some flutes have rolling undulations (corrugations) in their bore; these are part of the flutes acoustical design and should not be removed. Altering the bore of your flute will affect its tone and intonation. To accomplish this polishing I would recommend using OOOO steel wool. For the head of the flute I used a section of ½” diameter dowel rod and a section of 5/16” diameter dowel rod for the body. Steel wool comes basically rolled into the flattened pads, with care you can unroll the steel. I used a piece of packaging tape to secure the steel wool to my rods. I wrap the tape all the way around the rod and overlap a portion to securely hold it to the rod then of the trailing end of the tape I press the steel wool into the tacky face and start to roll the steel onto the rod (tacky face down). Roll enough steel wool onto the rod to make a diameter slightly greater than your bore. Then twist the steel wool tight and gently insert it into your bore. If the roll of steel wool is to big or small simply remove or add a little until a loosely snug fit is obtained. I polish the head by hand using gentle push-pull strokes with a little twisting till the bore is whisker free and shiny. For the body I chuck the small diameter dowel into my cordless drill and attach the steel wool in the same manner as was used for the head section. However, this time the thickness of the steel wool will be much greater (Caution do not wrap the steel wool to tightly, it needs to be compressible and resilient). It is important to start the body at the largest bore opening. Gently insert the rod and steel wool into the bore, then run the cordless drill on a low speed and gently work your way down the bore of the flute. I do this with a short scrubbing action (pushing/pulling moving only about 1” each time). Once your steel wool wrap has exited the further end of the section, I unchuck the rod and remove it from the flute section. Inspect the section and repeat the application until the whiskers are removed (some sections have particularly nasty spots that may be very difficult to remove. It may be better to leave some of the stubble in these areas, rather than risk removing to much material.)
If you wish to proceed to a finer finish, you can swab out the bore with a slightly damp rag. This will help to raise any further whiskers. Then lightly polish the bore again as described above, for the final polishing steps I use the polyester fleece instead of the steel wool. This process may even be repeated a second till to produce an excellent finish to the bore. But, remember only remove the whiskers not the wooden walls!
While you're at it why not lightly polish the exterior of the flute to remove any remaining tooling marks.
Here is a picture of my shiny bore:
Then thoroughly scrub the bore with a rag and ensure that the bore is dry. Then I’ve found that Yamaha Bore Oil, liberally applied and allowed to thoroughly dry, produces an excellent bore finish (seems to cement the grain down). But do not get this stuff on the outside of the embouchure, it tastes horrible!
Now that you have successfully polished the bore of your flute, you are basically back at square one and need to start breaking in the flute all over again.
Answer to logical question: Why not just use the Yamaha Bore Oil during the initial break-in. This is a good option, anyone want to give me a new Mopane flute to try this out on? Actually, I’ve tested Linseed, Almond and Yamaha oils on sections of “hardwood” dowels. The Linseed oil consistently penetrated faster and further than the other oils. I’ve also read that these commercial bore oils not only provide a barrier against moisture, they also form a barrier against future applications of oil. I wanted this deep penetration of oil for my new flute! Of course I could have simply applied linseed oil every day for a month and then sealed the bore with the Yamaha oil, all the while abstaining from playing the new flute. But after all I’m only human!
I would be interested in hearing feedback from others more experienced with Mopane flutes.
All the Best!
Jordan
