I got a flute a few years ago and have been playing it ever since. However, I was looking into getting something a little different. I found an old boxwood flute for sale online recently, but it has a crack in the barrel. It’s not just a hairline crack, it looks pretty nasty in the picture. I don’t know much about repairs, though. I was just wondering if anybody could give me some advice. I’ve heard that cracks in this part of the flute are common, but how easy or expensive do you think it could be to repair?
Just need a little guidance before I end up spending money on something that’s not worth getting.
Yes these are common cracks, typically from the wood drying out over the years and shrinking with the inner metal slide not changing to suit. There are posts on crack repair already, but to summarize (my procedure):
disassemble barrel from headjoint and remove any rings (a hammer, helper, patience, and a hardwood dowel will help you with the latter)
rehumidify barrel (I often use steam for this, but it does remove the shellac coating, so you may wish to be more conservative)
remove inner liner (if you use steam remember the leather gloves…)
remove any gunk that has collected in the joint from time, or previous attempts at repair, (the steam helps with this as well, but you may need to use a solvent - test before using on inobtrusive location)
reglue the barrel wood back together with fresh, good quality, cyano-acrylic glue (get from hobby shop, not big box store). You may need to reinforce the socket with an additional wood insert or sawdust mixed with glue. The procedure for this is beyond a quick note, but look elsewhere on this site and at Terry McGee’s pages for good info. You may need to fill the crack a bit with sawdust to fill the surface, but try to minimize this (particularly with a lighter wood flute as it is harder to hide. I use plastic wire ties to tighten down the wood while gluing and sometimes steam the wood to get it to bend back to shape. Scrape excess glue off after it drys with the back of your x-acto blade (not the sharp edge) and sand with 400 - 1200 emery cloth, progressively.
Sand out interior of barrel to fit metal slide insert. I use a dowel with sandpaper glued in or a precision metal lathe depending on how much material has to be removed.
glue barrel slide back in using heated shellac (heat metal, rub with shellac stick, slide into place - a time dependant process, but not difficult)
put rings back on (you did note down which was which, right?). You may need to shim these a bit with either a scrap of thin silk or thin paper.
refinish barrel surface (oil, shellac, french polish…)
10 rewrap tennon joint with either cork or thread as desired to suit new ID of socket.
The way I do it:
Remove liner and rings
Close crack, and glue with CA glue, if the crack is to wide, I will mill the crack and use a new wedge of wood in the crack.
Bore out the barrel, so the liner fits loosely in the bore.
I glue the liner back in with 2 part epoxy.
I then bore out the socket, leaving a thin veneer of the original wall, and glue in a new socket. Then cut a new socket, this reinforces the socket, otherwise it will crack again if you force the tenon in the socket.
detail out the crack, then buff.
Wow. That sounds a bit more complicated than I’m capable of. It sounds expensive to have done, too. I’m just not sure how much money I’m willing to put into something that’s going to cost a lot more later.
How can anybody tell if the flute is worth fixing, or not, without knowing more about “an old boxwood flute for sale…” This tells us nothing. It could be a flute that is worth $10,000 or one that is not worth $50.
If the flute isn’t worth a lot of money then just mix some sawdust that matches the color of the wood with a bit of slow-setting super glue and put it into the crack. That will do nicely and you’ll have a playable flute for little money. You can scrape off the excess and sand it down. A repair like this would only take about ten minutes all told and would last until it needed to be done again. Ignore all the fancy advice and just go for the simple fix.
Thanks everybody for the advice. If I decide to buy the flute, I might use the sawdust method or send it away. I know it would depend on who I send it to and the flute itself, but does anybody by chance know about how much it could cost to have fixed? I’d rather have somebody that knows what they’re doing fix it, but if it’s too costly I might be willing to forgo that option.
If I paid someone to repair mine, I’d want them to do it like you’ve described. The last repairer who filled a crack in, left a rather unpleasant epoxied sawdust (maybe about 5 grains?) repair.
I don’t have a workshop (well I do, however it has to be immaculately dust-free for work reasons) - this is what I use for my cracked boxwood flute. Break a cheap plastic coat hanger, and wrap PTFE tape around it to form a rubber rake if the crack is inside the flute. It needs to be thinned significantly and worked before it hardens.
