Re-reaming a flute after a few years. (Repost)

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tstermitz
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Re-reaming a flute after a few years. (Repost)

Post by tstermitz »

My original post got lost during the upgrade, but it got some interesting responses both here and at the Flute History forum on facebook. I can only partially reconstruct it.

My John Gallagher large-holed Rudall needed some small repairs - loose rings and tuneup. I sent it in to John, and he said he would re-ream it, as that is something he feels is necessary after one year and again after several years. I thought "Fine, you're the expert."

So John re-reamed it and re-sealed the bore, saying that "quite a bit of material came out" (whatever that means). He said it is surprising how much difference slight bore changes make. Also, he said that historic flutes certainly come with intentional bore variations.

What a remarkable transformation! This is a pretty loud flute, quite a bit louder than my antique Rudall with holes almost as large. (Larger bore; modern embouchure, I guess) Anyway, it came back louder than when I sent it. Also, I would say that the tone quality has a harder edge, less fluffy maybe? Not that I thought it was at all fluffy before.

Regarding historical flutes, I'm sure that the wood has changed over 200 years; I assume that shrinkage is more typical. I would not advocate for re-boring a historical flute, but the questions of "whether it was typical" or "how much" or "what the effect might be" raised some discussion at the Flute History Channel. The main issue for historical flutes is how you would even know the the original intention, and whether the changes hurt or helped.

With my John Gallagher flute, he has the original reamers and design drawings on file. Also, as the original craftsman he holds his intentions and experience in his mind and hands.
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Re: Re-reaming a flute after a few years. (Repost)

Post by paddler »

tstermitz wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 9:25 am So John re-reamed it and re-sealed the bore, saying that "quite a bit of material came out" (whatever that means).
That means that the bore profile had changed quite a bit prior to the re-reaming. It also means that once restored it to its original
bore profile by re-reaming, there was a significant change in bore profile compared to what you were playing before. In contrast,
if you have a flute re-reamed and no material comes out, then the re-reaming hasn't changed the bore profile much, and you would
not expect to notice much difference in playing characteristics.

I'm not at all surprised that changing the bore profile had a significant impact on how your flute played. In my experience, small
details in bore profile matter a lot.
tstermitz wrote: Mon May 31, 2021 9:25 am Regarding historical flutes, I'm sure that the wood has changed over 200 years; I assume that shrinkage is more typical. I would not advocate for re-boring a historical flute, but the questions of "whether it was typical" or "how much" or "what the effect might be" raised some discussion at the Flute History Channel. The main issue for historical flutes is how you would even know the the original intention, and whether the changes hurt or helped.
I agree that re-reaming a historical flute is probably a bad idea, given that you don't have the original reamers. However,
when making a modern copy of a historical flute, you don't have to know the original maker's intent. Instead, you can examine several
historical flutes and find the one that plays the best. If you really like how it plays, you can simply copy its bore profile, precisely, and end
up with a modern flute that plays similarly to the original (in its current state!). Whether the original maker intended it to play this way is beside
the point. But if you don't precisely copy the bore profile, you will probably notice the difference between how your copy plays and how the original
plays. Of course, if you then start to tweak things to improve A=440 tuning, etc, you will be introducing changes that can either spoil or improve
the playing characteristics. But I think this trial and error approach works best when you start out by making a fairly precise copy of something
you like, and then tweaking it in small increments from there.
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Re: Re-reaming a flute after a few years. (Repost)

Post by tstermitz »

Quite right Jonathon, but the part that gets me is the "quite a bit". That is un-knowable.

You make me think of Chris Norman's very special flute that he had copied.

I think my own R&R is very special, and would certainly like a faithful-playing copy!
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Re: Re-reaming a flute after a few years. (Repost)

Post by paddler »

Sometimes when you re-ream a flute you not only notice some material (wood shavings) present on the reamer,
but you can also see whereabouts along the length of the reamer they occur. This at least gives a rough idea of
which parts of the bore contracted the most. It is difficult to quantify precisely how much bore diameter change
corresponds to such shavings though, unless you actually measured the bore before and afterwards. Taking such
measurements, and creating an accurate bore map, takes a long time though, and much longer than simply re-reaming
the instrument, so I doubt anyone actually bothers to do that.
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