Not dumb . I think the answer is mostly, yes. I've taken advantage of all sorts of modern innovations, including epoxies, CA glue, lacquer, dyes, etc.. When I started experimenting with bamboo flutes, I set these aside and confined myself to shellac and some polymerized linseed oil and pine resin. And beeswax. The older finishes are actually quite effective, and you can do a lot with shellac, which is an incredibly useful substance. Twenty years ago I took to using clear epoxy bore finishes for utility, and (to a lesser extent) speed, and the fact that they are pretty much maintenance free. No oiling. They are damn useful and versatile. But they are epoxy, and they are very bad for the flute maker if you don't use plenty of ventilation and/or a respirator. Bisphenol-A, being one of the bad guys. I'm pretty sure I've negatively impacted my health over the years by inadvertent exposure to Bisphenol-A. So I'm considering ditching it in favor of button shellac.Conical bore wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 12:16 pm Dumb question maybe, but doesn't that inevitably lead you back to the 19th Century methods and materials used by modern flute makers offering wooden flutes? Aside from the metal bits -- rings, tuning slide, possible headjoint liner and keywork -- just about everything on a traditional simple system wooden flute is "natural."
You run into the sustainability issue with tropical hardwoods, but there are alternatives that don't involve resin infusion like the Canadian Maple flute offered by Windward. I think that's a heat treatment? Maybe similar to "torrefied" wood used in some guitars these days.
So as I say, I've been rethinking a lot of this stuff.
The torrefied maple is very useful and I stock a lot of it (one of my standard woods). However, depending upon the type of maple you get (hard or soft), the roasting process, while it does stabilize the wood (prevent shrinkage) it also makes the wood lighter and a bit more brittle. It will crack under stress more easily. Not the stress of environment so much as mechanical stress of the kind that happens when making a flute. It's prone to crack when being reamed if the reaming is done to a piece that is not sufficiently girth-y at the time of the reaming. In short, the roasted maple does not feel as robust as maple in its natural state. However, I'm pretty sure that to date I've only used soft maple in roasted form. I'm going to take some very hard maple that I have on hand and roast it myself (my supplier told me I can do it in the kitchen oven) and see what happens. (UPDATE: since writing this I've checked my invoices related to roast maple purchase and I'm pretty sure I've purchased both hard and soft maple. I have not done any sort of conscious comparison of the fragility of one versus the other, but I intend to do so now that I'm thinking about it).
Recycling Delrin: that would be great. And there have been many moments where I have questioned my arbitrary decision about the Delrin. As I say, it is not consistent or even totally rational. If I were really committed to making a change, I'd go 100% natural materials (as much as possible). Choosing one substance like Delrin, that is arguably no worse than some of the other substances that I use, is more reactionary than it is sensible. As I say, there are good things about Delrin, for sure. I wouldn't need an epoxy bore finish for starters
But being a "natural flute maker" is mostly an illusion. It's not really possible unless you do something like grow your own bamboo (or trees) and make flutes using nothing but hand tools and just finishing it with beeswax (or nothing). If we buy manufactured or processed substances of any kind (including wood), there are all sorts of upstream expenditures of energy and waste, before it ever gets to us. I took a gardening intensive workshop a few years ago offered by Ecology Action. I got an education in what the cost (environmentally) is to produce a gallon of vegetable oils* (soy, linseed, corn, etc.). It made me realize that using linseed oil really isn't any more responsible than using epoxy, though it is healthier for the flute maker. And a strong argument could be made that the epoxy is the more responsible choice! Ironic.
*Most vegetable oils are produced using large scale mono-cropping methods that involves massive use of water resources, chemical fertilizers, large gas-powered equipment, etc. That is before it is transported, processed and refined, shipped using more gas, etc.. The impact on wildlife is profound, as on the soil microbiome.