Pete, I’m personally not a fan of that plumber’s grease, but that’s just me. Threads are just fine without any of the gunky crap on them, btw.
A question for you Pete, where’d the artwork in your avatar come from - who is the artist? I dig the extreme foreshortened perspective.
Loren
P.S. I haven’t run across a small holed Seery, so I can’t help you on that one, sorry.
I’m with Loren. The only thing I put on my threads is a bit of beeswax on the end to keep it stuck down. I just take a pure beeswax candle (or a small piece thereof) and rub it a few times on the end of the thread. Then a few turns in the socket will spread out the wax and keep the end from popping up. And it goes without saying that you should twist on and twist off your joints in the same direction. I always go counterclockwise (if you were looking at the flute endwise, from the endcap of the headjoint).
Yup, I agree with Brad, and almost suggested a bit of beeswax too.
You know, it’s funny; I don’t understand why more makers don’t tie off the ends of their thread lapped tenons, so that they don’t unravel. I mean I’ve seen a number of “brand new” instruments with thread lapped tenons where the ends of the threads were just flapping around not properly tied off, what gives 
Loren
Hi Loren,
I’ll check at home for the artist’s name. It’s from a framed print that we have which I purchased in Atlanta, part of a whole series of jazz musicians playing different instruments. The funny thing is, I purchased the print before I became interested in the flute!
P.
Casey Burns recommends the wax used in toilet rings (the big yellow rings which go in between the toilet and the floor) for threads. It’s stickier and cheaper than beeswax.
-Craig
I’m not sure you’d want anything very sticky, and price isn’t an issue given the quantities involved. I have a thumbnail-sized piece of beeswax that I use for this purpose, and I’ve been using it for about 10 years now. Waxing the end of the thread isn’t something you need to do regularly…I only do it when I’m adding more thread to tighten the joint, which is maybe once or twice a year at most.
Yes, but aren’t flutes disgusting enough already (see my reference to Brad’s site upthread)? Is there really a need to pile it on?
My personal experience with threads vs corks (15 years of corked Olwell ownership, two years of threaded Grinter ownership) is that threads are more of a maintenance headache. My Grinter arrived with the threads crisply intact (tied off or not, I don’t know), but almost immediately one of the threads began to unravel (specifically, a loop of thread came loose rather than an end) and I was never able to get it back on tight. So I always had this loop of thread hanging off, which fortunately never got pulled to the point where it started coming off further. Contrast this with the behavior of the corked tenons on the Olwell, to which I’ve occasionally had to apply a bit of cork grease but otherwise no other maintenance or care has been needed. (BTW, I did occasionally apply a bit of cork grease to the Grinter threads, mainly just to seal the joint up a bit more, not because I needed lubrication in order to get the flute assembled.) I imagine that if I’d kept the Grinter that loose loop would have come unraveled further, and I would have needed to rethread the tenon. But more likely at that point I would have just pulled the threads entirely and installed cork.
I’m not a flute guy…yet. I am more of a science guy. An easy way to control mold in a container is to place a piece of paradichlorobenzene in the container. It’s what mothballs and toilet ‘puck’ deodorizers are made from. Approximately 5 grams per cubic foot of space is enough. I’m thinking a single mothball might do it depending on the size of your container.
Don’t eat it and don’t use it as a general deodorizer in your home. It will keep mold at bay as well as mites, moths and many other types of bugs.
It will also unfortunately make your flute smell like mothballs! I’m sure it’ll keep the mold at bay, but that smell is too high a price to pay as far as I’m concerned. A walk down my street at this time of year brings strong whiffs of that odor as the elderly ladies around here bring their furs and woolens out of storage for the winter…it’s overpowering. No way do I want my flute to smell like that!
No, I don’t think so. There is still progress to be made in this important area of research. I, for one, won’t be satisfied until we’ve overtaken the, um, the…
Now there’s got to be another instrument more disgusting…
The, um, well…
Never mind. We may have this one sealed. 
Yup.
Highland pipe bag seasoning trumps all in the nastiness department.
Well, yes, but points against them for switching to Teflon.
Okay, so I guess the toilet ring sealant wasn’t disgusting enough. Now we have someone advocating the use of urinal cakes in conjunction with flutes. Presumably he means new urinal cakes rather than “previously owned” ones, but these days you never can tell…
So who was it anyway that sang the song with the line that went something like “You can eat anything you want, but please don’t eat the urinal cakes”?
Yum!
are you not supposed to grease tennons for lubrication? i just did it on my new flute.
i was thinking about burt’s b’s lip balm. but i wondered if the mint and rosemary would be detrimental to the flute. i suppose a beeswax candle would be just as easy.
When I thread the tenons I use a mix of vasaline and candlewax on the thread. Just pop it in the microwave and melt it together. the cake I made is only half gone after a year…
A decent sewing store should be able to sell you a disc of pure beeswax for a few dollars. I’ve had one in my sewing kit for decades which I use to wax thread for sewing on coat buttons and other heavy-duty applications. Who knows, the sewing department in a place like the Rag Shop or “Mall-Wart” might even have them. Not to mention the candle department for the nifty-snifty crafters.