Advice on flute restoration?

Irish Flute
1

I recently purchase a german eight keyed no-name flute on Ebay from a flute player in DC who’s moved on to an Olwell. After some TLC I’m very pleased with it. Quieter and sweeter than my Dixon but still has a bit of a reedy tone, plus I’m finding the keys (particularly shortF, Gsharp, and Eflat) very helpful. Don’t see a need for the Cnat though as OXXOXX works fine. Damned if I can get my thumb to use the Bflat without losing hold of the flute or moving fingers off the first two holes.

So far I’ve manged to do the following. Bore oil inside and out. Damp-it in the case. Fixed the cork by shortening it and glueing on a dime (thanks to sturob for that tip - edit actually it was shoner) . It’s really improved the tone having a clean face and a gap between the cork and the crown. Next was fixing a crack in the barrel using gel superglue (being careful not to glue wood to the metal lining). Then rewrapping the tenons. They had originally been thread wrapped, replaced with cork (gone hard)then covered with mint flavor dental floss! Using polyester thread soaked in red ski wax has made an excellent looking job, plus left the tenons finger tight only. Hopefully reducing the strain on the cracked barrel.

Anyway, my reason for the question. How do I repad and clean the keys. I assume it’s OK to dip the keys (pads removed) in jewelry cleaner? Do I just heat the keys to unstick the pads? I got new saxaphone pads in about the right sizes from JL Smith & Co (http://www.jlsmithco.com) plus bedding adhesive disks. Are the disks OK to use, and if so how do I make sure the pads seat cleanly in the holes while I’m gluing them in to the keys?

Keith

[ This Message was edited by: kgharper on 2003-01-03 20:10 ]

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If I might piggy-back on Keith’s question:

Anyone have any good suggestions for prople who work on flutes and accept work through the post and answer their email? The guy around here (DC area) has disappointed us twice, and we’ve gotten a couple of names of others, but have never heard back from those guys.

TIA, Charlie

3

What I’d recommend:

Find the closest college or university, find a woodwinds teacher, clarinet or oboe or some such, and ask them nicely to recommend a local repair person for wooden instruments.

Any competent repair person with experience in clarinets or oboes is perfectly able to restore a wooden flute to playable condition, fix cracks, seat pads, deal with stuck tenons, etc.

Also the repair person can advise you on care of the wood and of the instrument in general.

Now, if there is a local woodenflute maker, they would be the better choice, of course. But most communities aren’t going to have that to offer.

Best wishes and good luck with that flute!

–James
http://www.flutesite.com

4

James,

good advice. The cheapest local estimate for repads and a clean was $55. Given the pads and adhesive cost me $5 I wanted to try and fit them myself first before spending more money

Keith

5

Hi!
I will give some advice on pads, but please bear in mind that I am most definitely NOT an expert in this. So check with others first!

The two most important things to remember with pads are:

  1. The new pad you plan to use cannot be too thick for the spring on the key. If the pad is too thick, the key action will definitely be impaired, and it may not be possible to open the key enough to get a clean note. So try to match not just the diameters, but also the thicknesses, of the new pads to the old ones.

AND

  1. After you have successfully attached the new pads to the cups, you will need to give the pads time to adjust to the shape of the hole they are covering. In order to do this, elastic bands work well. Wrap elastic bands around the flute barrel at the key cups, and leave them for a few days to a week, depending on how well they’re adjusting. [Note: the short F key may require some inventive diagonal wrapping: all other keys are parallel to the flute barrel, but this key is at right angles…] This is really important - if even a small amount of air is escaping at the keys, your overall sounds WILL be affected. When they are properly seated, there should be a definite indentation on the pad where the hole edges lie - and, of course, there should be no air escaping: to check this, take the keyed section, place the bottom end on your knee, cover all finger holes, remove elastic bands one at a time, and try to blow straight down through the section (make sure the end on your knee isn’t allowing any air out). If they’re seated satisfactorily, you should be about to pass out before any air even begins to escape from the keyed hole!

In relation to cleaning keys: this may not be what you want to hear, but a piece of newspaper and some elbow grease actually does an excellent job on silver keys (and rings). The only thing that I would worry about if you’re planning to clean the silver with polish is the springs - these are not silver, and while the polish may not cause problems, I would check with someone who knows about metals.

Taking the pads off: as far as I know, shellac is what is usually used to attach pads (please correct me if I’m wrong), so, when removing pads, gently heating the convex side of the cup should cause the shellac to melt enough to slide the pads out.

After that, GOOD LUCK!! :slight_smile:
Deirdre

Also: be VERY, VERY careful not to lose the mounting pins for the keys - those things are really hard to find if you drop them! I would recommend replacing them in the removed key - sometimes, especially with older flutes, the pins can become very slightly bent, and if you know which pin goes in which key, the task of putting the whole thing back together at the end is much easier!

[edited to correct typos… it’s late here!]
[ This Message was edited by: fluter_d on 2003-01-03 21:54 ]

[and edited to clarify (I hope) instructions]

[ This Message was edited by: fluter_d on 2003-01-03 21:58 ]

[and to make more grammatical sense… good grief :stuck_out_tongue: !]

[ This Message was edited by: fluter_d on 2003-01-03 22:24 ]

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Deirdre,

thanks for the advice. The instructions make perfect sense particularly for 3am your time!

The pad thickness is hopefully covered by the fact I got two sets, one for sax (about 3+ mm thick the other for clarinet (about 2+ mm). different colours of course, but the flute isn’t going to win any beauty contests anyway.

Good suggestion about the pins, I hadn’t thought about the risk of mixing up possibly bent ones.

The newspaper sound like hard work, so hopefully someone can advise me on the jewelry cleaner. It’s a mix made by MAAS in a jewelers bathe, supposedly cleans all metals.

The elastic bands may help me to look like a professional - until of course someone hears me play.

Does anyone have any tips on the bedding adhesive disks? They sounded a lot simpler to use than melting shellac.

7

Deirdre wrote:

Also: be VERY, VERY careful not to lose the mounting pins for the keys - those things are really hard to find if you drop them! I would recommend replacing them in the removed key - sometimes, especially with older flutes, the pins can become very slightly bent, and if you know which pin goes in which key, the task of putting the whole thing back together at the end is much easier!

So what do I do, I read this sage wisdom and then… thats right I LOSE one of the pins!
Jinxed! :slight_smile: Jon

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Found it!
Jeez, that was a close one… :roll:

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One warning:

If you have silver keys, don’t use rubber bands to seat the pads. Rubber puts a heavy black tarnish on silver almost on contact.

Another way: attach the pads with wax and “float them in”. Here’s how:

Put a small piece of wax in the bottom of the pad cup and gently heat the cup until the wax melts. Carefully place the pad in the cup (being careful not to get burned).

Use a needle and poke a small hole in the side of the pad (not the face).

Put the key on the flute, and wet the pad. Using a lighter, gently heat the pad cup (being careful not to touch the flame to the wood of the flute!!!) for a second or two, then use a soft rag to protect your hands and gently press the pad down and hold for a few seconds.

If the pad seat is smooth this should be all that is required to have a pad that seals.

This is the same technique used to pad clarinets and piccolos, although usually a repair person will use stick shellac as the adhesive. Be aware it’s harder to work with and melts at a little higher temperature though.

Best wishes,

–James

10

If this is a German anonymous flute, it’s highly unlikely that the keys are silver. They are most certainly nickel silver. That said, when cleaning/polishing them, don’t expect too much shine, as they remain a kind of greyish silver no matter what you do, the upside being they don’t tarnish black as real silver will. I also don’t believe that rubber has too much of an effect on nickel silver, corrosion-wise, as James rightly mentions it will on real silver.

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When polished on a wheel, nickel shines just as much as silver.

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On 2003-01-04 16:08, JessieK wrote:
When polished on a wheel, nickel shines just as much as silver.

Very true! And it has a deep, chrome-like shine, darker than silver (in a good way). Very pretty!

If you want shiny keys, the trick, no matter what they are made of, is to get into the habit of about once a day wiping them off gently with a soft dry cloth to knock off the fingerprints and skin oils.

Be careful you don’t bend anything though!

Best wishes,

–James
http://www.flutesite.com

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Thanks for all the solid suggestions, I feel ready to tackle the keys now. I could have sent it off for repair but I couldn’t resist the urge to tinker myself. Hopefully I can now do a good job. If so I might post a picture or two. I’ll then have to start on the case!

Jessie - for a polishing wheel, could I substitute a soft polishing disk on my dremel. If so what polishing medium works best?

The repair to the crack in the barrel has held (no more air leaks), but there is a slight gap at one end (away from the tennon) where the edges didn’t quite line up. It’s just surface deep but spoils the look of the repair. What’s the best way to fill this in? I read somewhere about using wood dust and superglue.

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[quote]
On 2003-01-04 17:26, kgharper wrote:
Jessie - for a polishing wheel, could I substitute a soft polishing disk on my dremel.

Not really. There would be streaks.