Storing the flute and humidity

[Liney Bear]

Hi -

I've noticed that after storing my blackwood flute in a sealed tupperware container with a damp dishtowel, the surface of the grain has raised in certain areas on the outside of the flute. It would be noticably wet when I took it out of the container after, say, 12 or so hours at a stretch, and need to be wiped off because moisture would bead off of it.

I've just gotten it back today from the maker who refinished the outside (very smooth now) and re-lapped the tenons, and he suggested that I store it at about 50% humidity.

Anyone ever had this happen to them, with the grain seeming to elavate and feel rough to the touch? I'm wondering if I should store it with the damp dishcloth but no longer snap the lid shut to cut down on over-humidification and not run the risk of needing it refinished in another year or so.

Any thoughts or tricks?

[Meadhbh]

I just ordered two combo packs from here: http://www.humistat.com
I have a wooden flute coming and am terrified of something "bad" happening if I store it incorrectly.

[Chiffed]

For wood, constant moderate humidity is better than trying to hydrate it in 12 hours. I don't know if blackwood can rot, but 100% humidity in a sealed wet box would be a good test.


BTW, you should see what super-humidity does to headjoint corks and boxwood. Eewww....

[johnkerr]

Placing a damp dishtowel inside a sealed tupperware along with a flute is not a good idea. You are adding too much moisture to too small an enclosed space, indeed creating a tropical environment in there. Your relative humidity is probably in the 80-90% range, while what you're looking for is more like 50%. At high relative humidity you will start seeing things like grain swelling in the wood, formation of mold and other nasty stuff. Using something like a humistat that will provide a lower but steady dose of moisture to the small sealed environment is a much better way to go. (If you want a really low-tech solution, use an orange rind - although you will need to replace it very frequently as it will dry out quickly.) Remember, you really can have too much of a good thing.

[Doug_Tipple]

With the cold temperatures outside (-1 degress F this morning) for day after day, it is difficult to keep an elevated humidity in the house. Not letting the humidity dip too low is good for wooden instruments as well as breathing humans and other animals. If the humidity in the house gets much below 30 percent relativing humidity (I have two digital hygrometers), I start to have problems with a sore throat and coughing. Since I usually am at home during the work day, I keep a large pot of boiling water on the stove. I also have a steam humidifier in my workroom/music room and a cool mist humidifier in the bedroom. Still, with all of this operating, I am having difficulty keeping the relative humidity in the house much above 30 percent. I have noticed that some of the tuning corks tend to dry out at this humidity, but, so far, I haven't had a problems with wooden flutes or other instruments cracking.

[greenspiderweb]

I store my wooden flutes in a tupperware-like container made by Starplast, sold in Walmart as a rectangular cake container with 2 blue handles on top that have holes drilled to keep them in place (which keeps it from being air tight and less likely to become too humid), but it does keep a pretty stable environment using a Herco Guard Father guitar case humidifier (which has a red clay in it that you just keep damp and costs about $3.50) inside along with the flutes.

It's a very simple and cheap system that works well, as long as you have a working hygrometer inside to measure the humidity level that you need to keep pretty consistent, as you would with any wooden instrument, for best results and less stress on the instrument.

How to keep your flute humidified was discussed in this 17 page thread not long ago here. That might help more and give you different approaches too.

[Doug_Tipple]

I store my wooden flutes in a tupperware-like container made by Starplast, sold in Walmart as a rectangular cake container with 2 blue handles on top that have holes drilled to keep them in place (which keeps it from being air tight and less likely to become too humid), but it does keep a pretty stable environment using a Herco Guard Father guitar case humidifier (which has a red clay in it that you just keep damp and costs about $3.50) inside along with the flutes.

Hello Barry. Yes, you are doing it the right way with your cake container. You could even put in a piece of sponge cake, which, in addition to keeping your flutes nice and moist, would also give your them a good aroma.

I haven't heard from you in months. I was beginning to think that green spiders hibernated in the winter months.

[greenspiderweb]

Hello Barry. Yes, you are doing it the right way with your cake container. You could even put in a piece of sponge cake, which, in addition to keeping your flutes nice and moist, would also give your them a good aroma.

I haven't heard from you in months. I was beginning to think that green spiders hibernated in the winter months.

Yes, I just came out of hibernation long enough to grab that piece of cake and...well, you know...(and check the Chiff board too!)..., so I'll see you in the Spring!

[flutey1]

would a humistat be effective in a soft case? or at least if the soft case was stored in something else when the flute wasn't being played or being taken somewhere to be played? (for anyone out there that might have tried either of these.)

[chas]

Since you already have the tupperware container, it'd cost about $20 to have an environment that is not only the right humidity, but also measureable. At your local guitar store you can get a humidor humidifier for about $5. From any number of online retailers you can get a decent digital hygrometer for $15. The cigar humidifier will keep a tupperware that'll hold a few flutes at about 50-60% RH. The hygrometer will tell you when the cover needs to be left ajar or you need to re-hydrate the humidifier.

If you were able to send your flute back to the maker, I presume you have at least several hundred dollars invested in it. I consider the $20 or so to get myself a controlled, measured atmosphere for my flutes a really cheap insurance policy. Sure, a flute can crack even under those conditions, but the chances are less, and I'm pretty sure my flutes aren't gonna get moldy.

[Steampacket]

During the winter months I keep my Wilkes in a rain barrel round the back of our house. An old flute player from Roscommon told me this was common practice back in the day. I haven't had any problems so far

[Whistlin'Dixie]

During the winter months I keep my Wilkes in a rain barrel round the back of our house. An old flute player from Roscommon told me this was common practice back in the day. I haven't had any problems so far

Here is what happened to me! True story!!!!
I had heard this piece of (c**p) advice a while back. so I thought I would try it out.

I placed one of my flutes in my rain barrel. No it wasn't a Wilkes, I don't have one of those, but I substituted another well-known brand instead.

For whatever reason I happened to forget it was out there for about 2 weeks. When I remembered it, I pulled the flute out and lo and behold! It appeared to have sprouted 2 tiny arms! Being wise in the ways of orchids, since they grow so well in my area, I took a sharp knife, sterilized it well, and sliced off the "pups" from the "mother" flute right at the level of the body. I then placed each of the "pups" into a small flower pot filled with potting soil and perlite. I placed the small pots on a dusty windowsill, the same one where I set out my orchids. They got precisely 6 hours of good sunlight a day, and since the windowsill is in my bathroom, they also got a nice daily dose of humidity from our showers. I wasn't sure how much to water them, so one of them I watered rather sparingly, like my Dendrobium orchid, and the other I watered a bit more often, like my Moth orchids....

Well what do you know? Exactly 12 months later, the "pups" were done! I knew this because they each had a nice round emboucher hole and 6 tone holes. But here's the good part. The one I watered sparingly turned out to be an Eb, and the one I watered more, turned out to be a D flute!

Even more amazing, the Mother flute was Delrin!!!!!!!!!

If you want, you can see a picture of the flutes, which appeared on the cover of the National Enquirer November 2005 issue. It is right next to the picture of Batboy goes to Washington......


M

[Whistlin'Dixie]

I wondered if I would have used a bit of fertilizer, the flutes would have had keys????

M

[Aanvil]

Dunno... seems like you already used plenty.

[Chiffed]

Silly people. I love it.