Crack Resulting From Overuse?

David Levine · Post by **David Levine** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:34 pm

I think a flute is far more likely to crack when left to dry out than when played too much.
Has anybody experienced a flute cracking from overuse? No hearsay here. Just firsthand experience if you please.

BigTex · Post by **BigTex** » Thu Jan 27, 2005 10:44 pm

DL,

I say teach a man to fish but invite him back to the house for a barbecue and be generous with the cold beer. Its hard to beat fresh caught fish on the grill.

Agreed on all points...I played the heck out of my Olwell from the day the delivery man handed me the package. I live in the dry West central Texas, and I chew tobacco and generate more spit than most, and I've had no problems with shrinkage or swelling or cracking. I don't even oil it much. I say give it hell, and swab it out well, more for stench avoidance and hygene than any cracking concern.

BT

andrewK · Post by **andrewK** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:07 am

I find myself wondering if some of the makers who urge these running-in periods for flutes we keep hearing about are using wood which is not very well seasoned. A different thing from dried, of course. Seasoning over a period changes hemi-celluloses to celluloses, the seasoned wood perhaps being less likely to move significantly in the first 150 years of your playing career.

rama · Post by **rama** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:35 am

David Levine wrote:
....Has anybody experienced a flute cracking from overuse?....

no, but a few fluteplayers have cracked up from playing too much.

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:13 am

Sometimes you just get a bad piece of wood sometimes it is being left in a very dry place to dry out without being brushed. It is more likley to warp because of over use what would happen is the wood would expand too much and when it is brushed and let to dry it will not have shrunken back to the same shape why newer wood does this is because it is not used to the constant expanding and contracting and will lead to cracking (rarely) or more likely warping.

treeshark · Post by **treeshark** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:15 pm

I was advised by a recorder maker many years ago to play as much as I could immediately since if it was going to crack I might as well know about it sooner rather than later. Andrew is spot on if the wood is properly seasoned and oiled up and has no potential shakes then it should be fine.
Rob

sturob · Post by **sturob** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 9:33 pm

Now where were you people when I was being landbasted for making such comments over on the thread on humidity? Hmmmmmmm?

Seriously, David, I can add that I've not heard of such damage. And, even though I live in swampy East Texas, when I was living in Toronto, I didn't have a humidifier for fall, nor for the first couple of weeks of winter, and all I noticed was that my cocus flute was, well, dry. No cracks. And that was with me playing the heck out of it a couple of days, then having no time for a few days (or a week), then playing it until it dripped, blah blah. Taking it outside into the subzero weather, brining it back inside into the <30% RH, radiator-heated rooms.

Though, you wanted stories of cracks due to overuse. Sorry to add to the derailment. I wonder if I'd be up for the death penalty in California?

Stuart

Terry McGee · Post by **Terry McGee** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 12:42 am

David Levine wrote:I think a flute is far more likely to crack when left to dry out than when played too much.
Has anybody experienced a flute cracking from overuse? No hearsay here. Just firsthand experience if you please.

I've seen quite a few flutes cracked by moisture. Usually in timbers other than blackwood, but certainly some blackwood. You can usually tell a moisture-induced crack as it is ragged, rather than the straight along the grain crack produced by shrinkage over metal, sockets with loose rings or other mechanically-induced failures.

Terry

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 8:21 am

So What about those occasional "lines" you can sometimes see running along the grains which have the appearance of "cracks-to-be"? (CTB's) They are not really cracks, but look as though if something was going to crack, that would be where it would happen. I have such a flute, and the "line" in question is in the lined headjoint.

I don't feel like getting all paranoid, I do live in "the swamp" like Stuart, I keep my flutes pretty well humidified (stored out of their cases, in a tupperware or a wooden chest with wet sponges galore) and use almond oil freely. And as the flute in question is one of my favorites, I play it pretty much every day.

This is a flute which already has a repaired crack along the (lined) barrel. As somebody mentioned in a previous long-ago thread, the crack is well repaired and is certainly not the end of the world ~ this flute is a fantastic player. I rub extra almond oil in that particular area every day. I guess there is nothing to do but wait for the inevitable? Is there something else that needs doing? Are these "lines" not really indicative of a CTB? And I should just relax and enjoy the flute, and if something happens, it happens? (Basically, that has been my attitude, but now that I'm reading all these threads! )

M

andrewK · Post by **andrewK** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 8:53 am

I would have thought that a well repaired crack is the last place to expect further trouble. The stresses which caused it will have been relieved, and the pinning ought to preclude the possibility of movement.

Jayhawk · Post by **Jayhawk** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 9:44 am

Mary - what wood is the flute with the "line"/striation? I know rosewood tends to have those and they are indicative of nothing...but I'm not sure about blackwood or other tone woods.

Andrew - Maybe the repair wasn't pinned? I think a decent number of repairs are done with crazy glue only these days.

Eric

andrewK · Post by **andrewK** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 10:03 am

I think we must distinguish between a decent number of repairs and a number of decent repairs.
I think that the superglue is OK for windproofing sometimes, and cosmetic work.
It scarcely will do for mending a proper headjoint crack on a decent flute, surely ? A barrel is even less satisfactory with S/Glue.
The best answer is to start planting cocus trees.
I once buttonholed a botanist at the Eden Project in Cornwall and urged him to get the powers -that -be to urgently obtain cuttings from any remaining ebony from the Indian Ocean ( Mauritius isn't it ) before the best is lost .

Whistlin'Dixie · Post by **Whistlin'Dixie** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 4:44 pm

Jayhawk wrote:Mary - what wood is the flute with the "line"/striation? I know rosewood tends to have those and they are indicative of nothing...but I'm not sure about blackwood or other tone woods.

Andrew - Maybe the repair wasn't pinned? I think a decent number of repairs are done with crazy glue only these days.

Eric

Hi Eric: It's a blackwood flute.

Hi Andrew: The barrel crack is repaired with glue, I'm sure, and not pinned. The CTB is in the headjoint, but not through the embouchure.
I guess the "prevention" is just in doing the usual precautionary things, and then worrying about things when (or if) they happen.

Possibly the line has nothing to do with anything...

M

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