Flute swabbing?

[jim stone]

What are you using to swab your flute? Pat O says only silk should be used.
What do you use? What sort of stick do you use?
Also how 'religious' are you about doing it?
Do you skip it sometimes?

[dow]

Swabbing? Dry as it's been around here, I'm not swabbing at all. I figure that the wood needs all the moisture it can get right now. Hopefully the situation here will change soon, and I can start worrying about too much flute moisture again. They say that it might rain in the next day or two (30-40% chance). Man I hope it does. For the first time in recent memory, my father-in-law has nothing to say about the mold index, as it's currently too dry for mold to grow.

Sent from the hill country of Texas where it's currently as dry as a popcorn f*rt. Currently at D4 on the drought meter.

• Oops. I just realized that I didn't answer your question, Jim. I use silk, but it's only because I found a bassoon swab not long after I started playing that was silk. That gave me a pretty good sized piece to work with.

Edited to bring me back from that tangent that I went off on.

[plunk111]

I use silk and swab every time I play. Aren't we supposed to do that? I should say that I'm not quite so religious about it with my delrin and pvc flutes, but I usually do it with those, too.

Pat

[LorenzoFlute]

I use a normal piece of cloth (cotton), I usually swab before going to bed, and sometimes during the day when I play for a very long time. I do tend to skip it sometimes, when I'm too lazy, but anyway I always disassemble the flute at the end of the day (that way moisture should dry in the night).

[eilam]

why silk and not cotton?
i use cotton when i'm done playing.

[MTGuru]

Fewer loose fibers and less lint in the bore, I imagine is the rationale.

[Lucas]

Fewer loose fibers and less lint in the bore, I imagine is the rationale.

Not entirely. Silk is much more compressable than cotton and less prone to getting stuck. Now, if you swab properly , ie. from the narrow end to the wide end, you will never have problems.
If you want to remove water fast and good microfibre is the best.

For clarinets silk is much better than any other material, because the top end of a clarinet has a register tube sticking into the bore and swabs tend to catch behind the tube. Silk has less tendency to get caught.

[Julia Delaney]

I use silk with a bit of almond oil on the cloth. I don't use cotton... never... ever. My intent isn't to dry the flute completely but to break up any large globs of moisture that might sit in it. The flute is not happy being totally dry. Cotton can take all the moisture out. The oil on the silk further reduces wicking and puts a bit of oil in the bore.
I clean the flute every time after playing it. MM told me that he cleans the flute the next morning but since I don't play like he does, I won't clean my flute like he does.
On alternate Thursdays I put the flute in the dishwasher.

[I.D.10-t]

I don't quite understand the cotton absorption thing. If you put oil on a cloth, doesn't that render it less absorbent? Do people usually use a new cloth every time?

On alternate Thursdays I put the flute in the dishwasher.

For the salt-spoon keys?

[Julia Delaney]

If you put oil on a cloth, doesn't that render it less absorbent?

Yes, an oily cotton rag would absorb less moisture. But you don't want the cloth to be saturated with oil. That would be messy and would drip too much oil on the bore.

Thanks for the tip. I had-- thoughtlessly -- been taking the keys off the flute before I put it into the washer. I will leave them on now.

[tsackett]

I swab my flute every time I play. I've played tenor saxophone for several years, and have seen the kind of deposits that build up in a hard rubber mouthpieces if you don't swab them regularly. They build-up is almost like the mineral scale you get in plumbing fixtures and coffee makers, and it's very difficult to remove.

My flute is an M&E ebonite model, which means it's made of the same material as the sax mouthpieces. I don't know if wood or delrin is subject to same build up, but the stuff in your spit and in condensation that isn't water is going to end up someplace, either in the wood or on the surface of the bore. I swab out as much of it as possible.

The moisture in a sax mouthpiece is probably more spit than condensation. I would expect the opposite to be true of what's in a flute. However, given that Irish music and beer go together so well, I'll keep swabbing.

[Aanvil]

I cut a little piece of Sham-Wow (no joke!!) and I use a nicely made bamboo rod.

[O_Gaiteiro_do_Chicago]

I tend to use these little numbers right here...

http://www.amazon.com/HW-Products-U-CLM ... B0007XFE38

They are intended to be left in the bore but I wouldn't recommend that for a wooden flute. I just use them to swab the excess moisture out of all the sections, and it's long enough to clean the headjoint as well. The clarinet ones are the best size for wooden flute. Silk swabs are okay but I've never had luck getting all the moisture out with them. I also have a couple spares that I use for oiling. I've never had any issues with them leaving lint in the bore since they changed to the new material.

[LewisC]

I just shake the big drops out and put 'er away. It's a roll-type case so it is not air tight anyway. I thought the purpose of oiling the bore is to have the moisture slake out more quickly.
lewis

[Julia Delaney]

Silk swabs are okay but I've never had luck getting all the moisture out with them. That's a good reason to use them.
...the purpose of oiling the bore is to have the moisture slake out more quickly. Yep.