Breaking down/swabbing my wooden flute

[CranberryDog]

I don't want to go too far out on a limb; and I admit this idea might be considered radical or arcane but ....

I have a Casy Burns flute. I follow Casey's care suggestions on his website.

There. I feel so much better now.

[Doc Jones]

I don't want to go too far out on a limb; and I admit this idea might be considered radical or arcane but ....

I have a Casy Burns flute. I follow Casey's care suggestions on his website.

There. I feel so much better now.

Scandalous!

Doc

[Whistlin'Dixie]

I've left my flute assembled for a good part of the day, as long as I'm off work, I'm home, and I'm picking it up from time to time to play it. I stand it up, not set it flat.

That's what I do.

I swab my flute when I put it to bed at nite, and sometimes give the bore a quick run-thru with a lightly oiled rag. I wouldn't just leave it assembled at all times. (That's me)

M

(no online tunes ~ 5 years playing)

[Cork]

When I play and water collects in my flute, I simply tip it downwards, plug up all the holes, and blow gently, so as not to risk shifting the cork.

BTW, the water that gets blown out simply adds to the dribble that's already on the floor, where I have strategically placed absorbent paper towels.

Why complicate the matter?

Enjoy!

PS, I once used sheets of newspaper, but now I can't remember when I last bought a newspaper.

PPS, metal flutes seem to leak somewhat more, so count your blessings, wood flute fans.

[sbhikes]

I don't want to go too far out on a limb; and I admit this idea might be considered radical or arcane but ....

I have a Casy Burns flute. I follow Casey's care suggestions on his website.

There. I feel so much better now.

I follow his suggestions, too.

Additionally, he recommended to me that I store my flute in a tupperware since I live in the "arid" south west (where it may never rain but it is foggy 46% of the time). But I don't keep it in tupperware. Yet.

[Cubitt]

It is interesting that all of the advice that has been given so far has been by people of whom we have no idea how they play. I'd love to hear a tune from somebody who gives advice based on twenty-five years of playing.

My own assessment is that I'm very good, but not great. To a high-end player, I'd probably please rather than impress. I have played paying gigs for many, many years, and frequently get asked back.

I don't have the facility to post a clip, but I would if I could.

Is there something wrong in my saying I've played for 25 years? It's simply a fact of experience, not a qualifier of ability. My apologies if it came across as some kind of boast.

Cheers.

[jemtheflute]

Doc wrote

Prolonged periods of assembly will cause pre-mature cork compression and require more frequent cork replacement

Maybe - if you are cork lapped! Actually, I'm mostly putting cork lappings on the flutes I'm doing up - it's simpler and tidier looking than thread whipped ones, not that those are that tricky. I've always done thread ones on my own R&R and they usually need renewing every two-three years. (I use well greased embroidery silk - the six loosely twisted strand kind - I split it down and use three strands at a time. That way it is easier to build up an even, flat-surfaced bed. It is a softer thread than the hard linen many use, so less likely to erode the socket lining, but it doesn't seem to absorb water badly or swell/shrink significantly. It may last a bit less well, but hey, its easy and cheap to re-do and comes in any pretty colour you fancy!) I wouldn't change to cork on my R&R. It's 165 years old and still going strong! All that experience! Incidentally, cork lapping is easy to do too (thanks Hammy for the demo at The Flute Meeting last year!).

If you're only going to oil one surface of your flute, pick the inside. That's where all the scary wet/dry/wet cycles are stressing the wood.

Hear, hear! And take note/action! Oiling the outside isn't really necessary at all. And I also second the wise advice about being cautious about leaning your flute up. The tenons can probably take just leaning there OK, but it is a very vulnerable situation unless the place chosen is very safe. Leaving mine laid horizontal doesn't seem to do any harm, though I try to leave it draining for preference.

All things considered, it may be that intermittent playing for short periods throughout the day would be the ideal environment for a wooden flute.

Quite likely true. I'm a bit like that. Intermittently.......

CranberryDog, careful on that tree branch! But you are quite right, new/very young flute owners (the flute, NOT the owner, silly!) should follow the instructions of the maker. New flutes and their breaking in are a wholly different proposition from the care of old ones. Of course the basic mechanical considerations are the same - relative expansion/contraction of wood or metal due to temperature or humidity variation, etc. But a new flute will take several years to become settled and stable, even if it is kept in a constant environment and with a consistent care regime. The timber of an antique flute can be expected to be much more stable and is less likely, short of extreme abuse, to crack or warp. It would already have done so if it was likely to do so.
Note that the barrel of my R&R had already cracked once before I had it. Pinning it re-stressed it, and although it was fine for several years, when exposed for too long to a hot and arid environment, it went again. The barrel is fully lined, so it doesn't leak, and in GB the crack stays closed up. When I've taken it back to Spain since the crack, it has started to open up again as the (very thin) wood dries, unless I keep it humidified. By comparison, the full and heavily metal-lined head (it's a Patent Head, full of chunky brass-work) has never cracked.....(touch wood!). The barrel re-cracked because it was stressed and had a weakness/tendency already there. Seemingly the head is/was not and has adapted happily to its lining over its long life.

Cork, if your stopper moves when you do that shower-your-neighbour blast thing (fun, isn't it?), it's too loose! Get a tighter one, or wrap a bit of thread/fag-paper/PTFE tape around it, or beeswax it. If it is loose enough to shift when you cover the finger holes and blow hard into the embouchure to shift out the condensation, but with the bottom end open, it may well be leaking air anyway! It should take a moderate amount of force to move it, whether by screw adjuster if you have one or with a push rod, even assuming it isn't gunked/verdigrised in place.

[Cork]

...Cork, if your stopper moves when you do that shower-your-neighbour blast thing (fun, isn't it?), it's too loose! Get a tighter one, or wrap a bit of thread/fag-paper/PTFE tape around it, or beeswax it. If it is loose enough to shift when you cover the finger holes and blow hard into the embouchure to shift out the condensation, but with the bottom end open, it may well be leaking air anyway! It should take a moderate amount of force to move it, whether by screw adjuster if you have one or with a push rod, even assuming it isn't gunked/verdigrised in place.

Well, on this forum, I realise that I am in the company of other, experienced flute players, they who know about such things. However, for the benefit of less experienced players, they who could be less likely to recognise the symptoms of a displaced head joint cork, and who could be less prepared to deal with such a thing, I mentioned it.

Actually, I am tempted to open another thread about such water, but I fear it could be seen as, well, too crude.

:-D

[fluti31415]

I frequently only have 10-15 chunks of time to practice throughout the day and requently leave my flute (Olwell Pratten D) assembled between my minisessions. The flute frequently is left assembed most of the day. Is that a problem? Is there something tragic that will happen if I don't swab all that beautiful gunky saliva out after each usage?
Thanks,
Jeff

I have the opposite opinion of most of the people on this thread. I haven't played flute for 25 years, but I've played oboe for that long. Over time (a long period of time), the bore of the instrument will get pitted if you don't keep up on maintenance. This can affect the tone. On oboes, this means that the instrument loses focus and resonance in its tone, tends to go sharp in pitch (I don't know why, but it does), and sounds just generally weak. We say that the oboe is "blown out." Sometimes the bore can be redone, but usually it means that it's time for a new instrument.

It does take a long time for this to happen -- Paul Covey, who is a very respected oboe repair person in Atlanta says that it happens between 3 and 6 years for an oboe. For amateurs, maybe the tone difference isn't as objectionable (either because they can't hear it as easily, or they didn't have such a good tone in the first place).

My opinion (and it is just that) is that you have a superb instrument that likely cost you a lot of money, and that you likely value quite a bit. So why take that chance?

OTOH, really old Rudalls likely didn't always get that much care, so who knows?

[Cork]

...when you do that shower-your-neighbour blast thing (fun, isn't it?)...

:-D

[jemtheflute]

...when you do that shower-your-neighbour blast thing (fun, isn't it?)...

Especially when it solves the problem of the bodhranist with the over-taught skin sitting beside you!

[jemtheflute]

fluti31415 wrote

the bore of the instrument will get pitted if you don't keep up on maintenance. This can affect the tone. On oboes, this means that the instrument loses focus and resonance in its tone

Hmmm, interesting, especially in view of the apparent beneficial effect of Doug Tipple's "speckled bore"????????? I wouldn't say my cocus Rudall has a pitted bore, notwithstanding its age and sometimes intensive use. Its bore isn't especially polished either, but generally quite smooth - I've just been and peered down it, and several other flutes, including an 1820s boxwood 1-key, a blackwood C19th French 8-key and a ?cocus C19th German 8-key ..... all are fairly smooth but not highly polished, with the occasional patch of naturally slightly rougher wood grain showing. I don't think anyone would complain about the tone production of any of them, allowing for their stylistic differences. Mind you, all except the part-lined French one have metal lined heads. IMO the cut of the embouchure has more effect on tone production than the smoothness of the bore in a flute. So, a very interesting point, but I rather doubt the oboe experience is applicable to flutes.
BTW, I read in another thread recently someone musing whether flutes improved with age like violins, with their timber "learning" to resonate. I doubt it, or at least only to a minimal extent. Flutes certainly seem to "wake up" as they get played in, even old ones that have had a lay-off, but I suspect that this has more to do with the player finding a way "into" the particular instrument than it has to do with timber resonating, even allowing for rehydration or new oiling etc having some effect. The whole issue of tube materials for flutes is an old and enormous one that seems only to produce subjective answers! New flutes that are good instruments sound great straight away, whatever they are made of, and I don't think they "go off" or get significantly better with playing - which violins and guitars etc. certainly can.

Paul Covey, who is a very respected oboe repair person in Atlanta says that it happens between 3 and 6 years for an oboe

That seems an incredibly short life for a top class instrument!

My opinion (and it is just that) is that you have a superb instrument that likely cost you a lot of money, and that you likely value quite a bit

I certainly agree with that - and you don't have to read far on here to realise that most of us are very attached to our instruments too! I certainly don't advocate being cavalier - look after your instrument yes, but don't be paranoid or over fussy. I keep seeing people, especially some newbies, saying things that imply they think looking after a wooden flute will be difficult and burdensome. IT ISN'T!

[fluter_d]

Hi all,

Lots of good advice on this thread. I'm not quite up to 25 years of flute playing yet, but I'm not too far off either.
So here goes.

If you're leaving the flute assembled for long periods, and the tenons are cork lapped, make sure that the moisture isn't getting into the cork. Lots of cork grease will probably help. You don't want to end up with a flute that won't come apart. I would also make sure that the tuning slide also doesn't get too stiff - the tendency for me is not to move that if I'm playing by myself and I didn't have to put the flute together. In short, just check all the movable joints every so often.

Deirdre

[Aanvil]

Not swabing out and breaking down your flute is like not brushing your teeth.

I've been around Cubitt enough times now to know he brushes even though I was suprised to find that he does indeed keep his flute out and assembled.

Thing is we have a rather mild and stable climate most of the time here in L.A. so much less risk.

Its the dreaded Santa Anna's that I would worry about. Make you into a mummy it will if ya ain't careful.

I think his flute has tread on the tennons.

Me?

I keep my wood flutes always apart when aren't being playe and in the humidified flute box and a hygrometer.

I have too many other things to fret about I don't need anything else.

[azw]

What does a flute stand look like? Any ideas on how one could make a simple one? It sounds like it'd need a heavy base to stay securely upright.