I thought I would post this bit of eye candy. This is some Turkish Boxwood currently on its way to me. Its dry, ready to use, and the pieces are relatively free of knots and beautiful. I specified older wood that may have a bit of the blue staining that other makers, especially Baroque flute makers, avoid like the plague. To me its no problem as long as the wood itself is sound. I've been using this blue stained boxwood as bunch as it is the best use of a finite and difficult to find resource. Its probably possible to bleach out the blue stain with NaOH and H2O2, then acid stain or dye the wood. But as this wood is intended for Folk Flutes I will use it as is. I am in the process of laying in enough for 100 flutes.
All joking aside ... I hope someday to have the funds to purchase one of your folk flutes.
After 2 years of whistle playing and a bit of ABS flute making and playing I'd really love to get one of your folk flutes someday. Glad to see you are keeping well supplied!!
ggiles wrote:I hope someday to have the funds to purchase one of your folk flutes.
After several attempts at saving for a FF over the past 10 years I finally managed to buy one about 1-1/2 ago. Of course in the end I had to save even more since the price went up over those 10 years (go figure ) But don't give up, it was definitely worth the price!
Well the boxwood arrived and the pictures were spot on accurate. This is fantastic wood. All the boxwood will turn free of any knots, not that there are many. There isn't that much blue staining and even some of this boxwood has a bit of a fiddleback figure to it. Frankly its as good if not better than what I have been using lately (the last of my previous boxwood pile, cut around 2005 and earlier). Even better the wood tested at 6-9% humidity, meaning it is well cured and pretty much ready to use. I went ahead and confirmed the additional 70 flute sets he has ready for me. Its comforting to have 100 flutes worth of perfect boxwood for Folk Flutes and other flute in my wood pile. I'll probably keep ordering more next year until I have enough to last for a decade or two of flute making.
Nice supply of wood Casey! Thanks for sharing the pictures. Its interesting to see the various stages our flutes go through on their way to becoming musical instruments.
Would you mind sharing how you test the humidity level for a batch of wood like this? Also, what size billets do you order to allow for potential movement in the event that the wood is not so well seasoned, and for losses in the production process?
I use a Mini-Ligno moisture meter to test the humidity in the wood. I'll test it on the surface and across a freshly cut face.
These woods usually do not warp to much degree, and I pre-warp boxwood before the final shape is turned. Thus starting with a 40mm X 40mm square and ending up with the largest diameter around 35mm allows for some movement and warpage. With boxwood I usually turn round, saving as much of the diameter as possible, pilot bore it to 1/2" or 5/8", seal the end grain, and then microwave it for 10 minutes at 30% power. I let it sit for a week or two and any warpage it will have shows up in this period. Then it gets reamed, and then turned. Any additional movement of the wood is then minor.
I have one of your boxwood folk flutes that I purchased from a board member and it is fabulous. Glad to see you've acquired great wood to make more of more of these beauties.
I started a flute from this wood today - and tested the humidity further inside the wood. Still at 8-10%. The boxwood that has been laying around in my workshop for years actually tested higher, thanks to our rather humid summer probably. I've been running a dehumidifier in my workshop to bring it down some.
Its clear to me that these squares were rendered from logs half a decade ago, which is very good in terms of them being ready to use. I went ahead and ordered more. I would like to have enough to last for a few more decades of flute making.
) But don't give up, it was definitely worth the price!
