This is perhaps a bit silly; after all, isn’t the sound the most important part of the flute? But in contemplating a potential new purchase in an “alternative” wood I’ve been wondering a bit about how some of these woods look years after the initial purchase. Most pictures from makers and online are of fairly new flutes, and the vast majority of flutes I run into in the wild are made from blackwood.
I know, for example, that pink ivory seems to lose its “pinkness” after a few years, settling into a still-lovely if not quite as striking reddish-brown color. A shame, because that pink really is something! A purpleheart instrument I had for a while went through a similar de-purpling into a dark brown. Mopane is said to darken, but I’ve seen pictures ranging from a very light brown to almost black, so I’m wondering if most of that is variation in the wood, or does all mopane end up very very dark? Boxwood doesn’t get nearly as dark, but does seem to age somewhat from the bright yellow/tan of its early days.
So to any longtime owners of non-blackwood flutes I ask: what color changes have you noticed? Does anyone have a flute that looks strikingly different from the day you first got it? And specifically for mopane flute owners, how much has your flute darkened over the years (mopane and boxwood are two that I’m most interested in)?
My main flute is mopane, and was originally brown with almost a slight sort of reddish/purplish hue to it.
The only difference now is that it’s got a tiny bit more dark brown notes to its colour. Just a small difference. At the end of the day, I don’t really care what happens to the colour of it.
I’ve been playing it daily for a bit more than 6 years maybe, so probably not long enough for much change to happen.
Most woods will darken over time, and it is not just the wood that darkens, it is the oil finishes too.
I can’t speak specifically to Mopane, but boxwood treated with either linseed oil or tung oil will definitely darken over time.
It’ll usually start out as a light blond color and end up more honey/amber colored. I prefer the look of aged boxwood, so I think
of boxwood flutes as getting progressively more beautiful as they age.
I’m with Paddler on the beauty of aged Boxwood. I have seen surface stained, new boxwood flutes, but that doesn’t grab me the like golden brown aging. I believe you can speed this up by using an “acid stain” (as opposed to finish stain) the wood itself. I think (without personal evidence) that you can do that with ammonia fumes. I know ammonia gives a wonderful darkening to the tannins in oak.
I have had a mopane flute and felt that it was “thirsty” for oil or water, and that it was darker when more damp via either fluid.
I’m a sucker for the look of boxwood. Here are a couple of photos of three I have: on the right is a Baubet from 2017, in the middle a Murray from somewhere around 2000 (best guess) and, on the left, a Firth, Hall and Pond from circa 1840. Perhaps apples and oranges as I don’t know whether there is a difference in the varieties of boxwood among the flutes or how they were stored prior to my ownership. Since I’ve had them, they were in cases when not being played so limited exposure to sunlight. Also, the Murray and Firth, Hall and Pond instruments had been treated with some sort of sticky coating (perhaps linseed oil) that I gently removed with a light alcohol wiping with did somewhat lighten the color. Anyhow, here’s how some have aged.
I know from experience in the guitar world that lighter colored woods will darken faster with exposure to ambient lighting. If you buy a newly made guitar with a spruce top, especially direct from a luthier where the top is “fresh” and hasn’t been sitting on a store display rack, it can be almost white in color. Store it inside a case and it will stay that way for a while. Keep it out on a guitar stand and it will start to darken to a nice amber color after a year or two, especially if it can get a bit of direct sunlight through a window (careful to avoid direct heating!).
I assume most of us store our flutes inside a case when not playing. To the extent that exposure to light is a factor, this could take a long time with a newly made Mopane or Boxwood flute. Perhaps keeping the flute sections outside the case in ambient room light might accelerate the process? The brighter the room the better. And of course taking care with ambient temperature and humidity control.
A lot. In 14 years mopane has gone from being only a little darker than furniture-stock sapele to almost as dark as 19th century cocus. It still smells nice as it comes out of a case through. A more recent flute from the same maker but younger wood stock doesn’t look as if its darkening as fast and never smelled the same.
I doubt either have averaged more than an hour or so per day in the light. Is it just light or an exposure of the surface to air that makes the changes? Air as well as light is needed to fade some inks - many posters stay as new under the sellotape.
Years ago I ordered two custom Santa Cruz acoustic guitars from Steve Swan’s shop, one for me and a lefty version for my wife. Both had soundboards from the same batch of “German” spruce. I kept mine out on a stand in our music room because it was my main instrument at the time. My wife hardly ever played hers so it was kept in the case. After a few years I noticed the top on hers was still almost white, while mine had darkened to a nice amber color. So I placed it on a stand, and after a couple of years the soundboards of both guitars now look the same.
Her guitar case was the usual plywood type, not hermetically sealed, so the wood was exposed to some air exchange with temperature and humidity changes over time. But no light. From that little unintentional experiment I’m concluding that light exposure has more effect than just oxidation from the air.
Since that woodmagazine.com link above says it’s UV exposure that does it, this brings up the intriguing idea of whether you could speed up the process of darkening with a strong UV lamp. Anyone game to try it with a nice boxwood flute?
Tangentially, I would add to this discussion that all vegetation, wood and trees included, are profoundly involved with their relationship to light. Chlorophyll is perhaps the most photoreactive chemical in a tree, but certainly not the only one. The majority of the photosynthesis takes place in the chloroplasts in the leaves, but photosynthesis is also found throughout the organism, the petioles, stems, flowers, fruits, and seeds . The remnants of these photoreactive chemicals contribute to the darkening.
I don’t think there can be much UV in the rooms on the North side out our house. And UV is (or was) used to bleach fabrics. It may just be any light providing energy. The almond oil I use for the flute comes in brown bottles.
I had initially been interested in Mopane because of photos I had seen at Steffen Gabriel’s site showing some Mopane wood flutes. The red was prominent in a very “regal” way and is gorgeous, but then a friend of mine has a Mopane flute from another builder and his is very…brown. I’d like one that is that deep red that turns toward black in the flavor of Coccus. I think though that you just cannot be assured though of just how it will turn out. I’m considering a Bb in Mopane and now that I’ve see the ideas here, seems like some careful environmental exposure could steer it toward the color I’m desiring.
