Chiff and Fipple Forums

I am new to flute playing (4 weeks total). A couple of weeks ago I got an 8 key antique wooden flute. I am thoroughly enjoying learning to play it.

I've been able to use the search function here and find out good information on oiling the flute but there are some things I've not been able to find answers to.

When playing multiple practice sessions during the same day do you swab it dry each time when finished playing that practice session?

Do you leave it disassembled or do you re-assemble it each time?

Overnight do you leave it assembled or do you dis-assemble it each time?

I do not have a case for it. It will either sit on a shelf or with the whistles in a whistle rack I built for them.

Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide.

Welcome to the challenging world of antique flute care. I can tell you what I do, and hope that my method works for you.

I always keep my flute sections disassembled when I'm not playing the flute for more than 45 minutes or so (depending on ambient humidity). I swab ever time I finish playing for any significant amount of time (flute flags are great for this). I've needed to repair flute cracks in the past from previous owners of the antiques I purchased, and want to avoid that at all costs. A lot depends on how humid your storage/practice space is, target is around 45-60 RH range. Sockets shrink in dry surroundings. Winter heating and summer air conditioning are not your antique flute's friends. Watch out for loosening socket rings (if you have them). This is a good indicator that a problem is coming. Don't ever force flute sections together if they seem too tight.

Good luck.

As Latticino said, although I don't worry too much about storing after each use if I pick the flute up regularly during the day.

Swab out after use. Condensation builds up, often to the point where wet bubbles form under some of the keys.

Store in a plastic container with a guitar humidifier in it. (I use the guitar sound-hole type which slowly lets out moisture). Swab and let dry for a little while, as you don't want to store the flute when it is dripping wet.

Oil occasionally - every few months, maybe. Antique cocus is pretty dense and oily, so frequent oiling isn't necessary. I used to use almond oil, which most people recommend, until I found it going rancid on a flute. I now use food grade mineral oil (for cutting boards), which wipes on and off cleanly. Others say bore oil, but you don't want a drying (hardening) oil, as that will build up or gunk up.

Look up Rockstro hold. Start correctly so you don't have to relearn later!

This resource is extremely helpful for antique flute fingering:
http://www.oldflutes.com/charts/simple/index.htm

Get a local teacher to help with embouchure. A classical flute teacher is fine, as the goal is addressing any bad habits early on and building up quality of tone.

Coming from whistle, I assume you have cuts, rolls and taps under your belt. Gaining whistle-speed articulations will take a while.

The longest journey will be good tone production as the embouchure takes a loooooonnnnng time to develop. I have found the long-tone exercises by Wye to be helpful. Also, playing arpeggios, harmonic series and octave jumps. Most beneficial in retrospect was learning to play in the third register. That builds up strength and focus that made my lowest notes much stronger and easier.

I often stand the flute in a corner and let it drain.

I asked a similar question a while back, about leaving my wooden flute assembled if I had a practice session in the morning and another one in the afternoon (the joys of retirement and free time). I was thinking the additional wear on the tenons from taking it apart and putting it back together, might be worse over time than allowing moisture to sit inside the flute for several hours.

IIRC, the consensus in the replies was to swab out and disassemble between practice sessions on the same day. The main concern being that drops of moisture might tend to raise the grain inside the barrel, and we want our flutes to be a smooth as possible on that interior surface.

As it turned out, I decided to restrict daily practice to one longer afternoon session instead of twice a day. It was easier to schedule, and I think I made more progress that way. It might have something to do with the way our brains might need an overnight rest to process information, and two or three shorter sessions during the day don't achieve the same result. Just a theory, I don't know if it's true.

Thanks Latticino, tstermitz, Jim Stone and Conical bore for your replies and additional information!

Retirement has given me the time to do the things I've been wanting to do for so long but I just didn't take the time to do them.

Learning to play the whistle and now the flute have been and are so much fun! Thanks again for helping out a newbie!

It's been mentioned here before that it's not a good idea to leave your flute assembled when you're not using it it, because the cork can become compressed.

Even with a silver flute you should swab it after use, because a high-humidity environment is not good for the pads.

If you want a budget case, and you have access to a sewing machine, it's pretty easy. A fabric shop can sell you already-padded fabric. Just fold it over and sew compartments for each section. Fold to the top over too and sew on a couple of laces so you can tie it shut. This will provide some protection if you want to take your flute somewhere else.

Another cheap and easy flute case is a Padrón cigar box. A little padding and yer good to go. They´re built like a little bank vault.

Bob

edit to add: You´ll never have any mites inhabiting such a case to devour your pads, what with the cedar and any residual nicotine.

Should Delrin flutes be disassembled between uses also?

Brus wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 6:43 pm Should Delrin flutes be disassembled between uses also?

I generally do. Trapped moisture is not good for cork or thread.

If it has corks, that is. The Shannon by Walt Sweet has rubber o-rings for example.
My David Angus wooden flute has a brass tuning slide and the body is one piece. No corks, except the stopper in the head. After playing, I put it on a flute stand. But in a worst case scenario, I could swap out the stopper myself, should it get bad.

I've been a little bit naughty with my Delrin flute and rarely swab or dis-assemble it. It's my go to flute for playing as and when throughout the day. And as it's delrin I've been more blaise about flute care than with my wooden flutes which tend to get assembled, played, dis-assembled and swabbed and put safely away. Certainly I've noticed the foot joint tenon cork has gotten a little bit compressed in the c. year I've had it now so have started a new regime of leaving is dis-assembled until the first time I pick it up in the day and dis-assembling and swabbing it before I go to bed.

I love the flute (made by Francois Baubet) but have looked covetously at that Carbony D on the Irish Flute store as it'd be even more easy to care for.

The best personal flute case I had with this sewing machine is three-layer. The outer layer is cloth, the second layer is polyethylene or something like that, so as not to let any form of moisture pass through, the inner layer is also cloth, made of dense material that would preserve and best of all not bend, you can add stiffeners to reduce the risk of strong mechanical impacts, such as breaking a flute.

Lonyy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 3:16 am The best personal flute case I had with this sewing machine is three-layer. The outer layer is cloth, the second layer is polyethylene or something like that, so as not to let any form of moisture pass through, the inner layer is also cloth, made of dense material that would preserve and best of all not bend, you can add stiffeners to reduce the risk of strong mechanical impacts, such as breaking a flute.

Uh ... in the link I see a lot of Singer machines, but no cases. I think you need to rectify that, otherwise people are going to start thinking you're a spammer.

Nanohedron wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 1:20 pm

Lonyy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 03, 2022 3:16 am The best personal flute case I had with this sewing machine is three-layer. The outer layer is cloth, the second layer is polyethylene or something like that, so as not to let any form of moisture pass through, the inner layer is also cloth, made of dense material that would preserve and best of all not bend, you can add stiffeners to reduce the risk of strong mechanical impacts, such as breaking a flute.

Uh ... in the link I see a lot of Singer machines, but no cases. I think you need to rectify that, otherwise people are going to start thinking you're a spammer.

Sorry, I just wanted to show what sewing machine I used to create a case, I thought that is can be useful for someone here. Unfortunately I do not have this case with me right now so I cannot show it