I have a couple of flutes on which I’d like to tweak the relative tuning of a note or two. I know that a note can be flattened by filling part of the tonehole with beeswax. The question is, how does one apply the beeswax. I had a flute that John Gallagher did this with and he did this very nicely and cleanly.
TIA,
I melted some some shellac flakes in a tone hole with a soldering iron. the dark shellac matches the cocuswood so you can hardly notice. With the wax, I have melted t and applied it in the tone hole.then it can be carefully shaped with a small soldering iron. if you don’t have one heat up a small phillips screwdriver and shape the wax with that.
Thanks, mon!
Charlie, if you were considering tinkering with the VH, I believe that one has been retuned as much as possible already. I could be wrong, but I think Sarah had already had Patrick re-work the tuning as much as is feasible. Further attempts to mess with it will likely case more harm, and no good. Again, you could always contact Sarah and ask her if she had Patrick retune it. I’m almost certain she did.
Loren
No it’s something else I’m thinking of.
Here are two high-tech solutions to your tuning question. To flatten the tuning of a finger hole you need to reduce the diameter or surface area of the hole. For a temporary fix this can easily be accomplished with a piece of masking tape attached to the outside of the tape partially covered the hole. You can move the tape until you get the pitch that you desire.
Another way to accomplish the same objective is to use white glue applied with a toothpick on the sides of the fingerhole. The glue with dry hard and clear and can be filed or removed, if necessary. It is best not to apply too much glue at one time, as several applications may be necessary if you want to change the pitch very much. The completed finger hole correction is hardly visible and works very well.
The aforementioned suggestion of using beeswax is also an easy fix for the problem. Simply press the beeswax against the sides of the finger holes with a small stick (modified chopstick). You can mold and shape the beeswax until you have the correct pitch.
White Glue??? And you’ve tried this on multiple $1500.+ stained or dyed boxwood instruments Doug?
Ditto on the tape. You’ve tried leaving that on all sorts of finishes for long periods of time, to see what happens when you remove it?
Loren
This is how Hamish Moore adjusts the tuning on his smallpipe and borderpipe chanters. He is considered at the top of the pipe making trade with both the beauty of his instruments and their tone quality. I’ve seen him do this on ebony, blackwood, and boxwood chanters.
Best, John
Best to find out exactly which “white glue” as they vary all over the lot w/ respect to moisture resistance, hardness, etc etc… 
Yeah, exactly.
Loren
Blue Masking tape is very good for temporary things. here’s a link that talks about it. http://tinyurl.com/nssl7. I use it for everything that I used to use the plain masking tape for specifically because it can be easily removed and doesn’t take anything with it or leave a residue.
Okay, I’m not trying to pick on anyone here, just trying to illustrate a point, from the webpage you listed:
“Coating being applied: water-based, solvent based; not compatible with lacquer coatings or surfaces”
The key bit being that last - “not compatible with lacquer coatings or surfaces” So, some flutes may be damaged by this tape.
The problem with some of the blanket statements being made with regards to tape and glue, is that while some glues and tapes may be harmless to some flutes and their finishes, other tapes and glues can problems when applied to some flutes. So, simply saying that using tape and/or white glue are good options, is misleading and potentially can lead to someone making a costly mistake - I’ve seen the results dozens of times.
Also, advising that a particular maker uses white glue or whatever, is fine, but one has to realize, that maker x, y, or z may be highly skilled and use to specialized tools, which many people reading what is written here do not, which could lead to serious problems. Yeah, getting the glue into the hole may be easy enough, but how about shaping it without the benefit of a proper scraping or filing tool? What if the glue needs to be removed completely? Again, without the proper skills and tools, particularly if the wrong glue is applied, real problems and damage can occur.
Another thing that is not being taken into account is preparation of the tone hole before applying something like glue, both for the glue to adhere, and to avoid serious chipping/tearing out of the wood surrounding tone hole (the exterior surface of the flute), when removing glue or other similar substances that adhere strongly and then turn hard.
It all seems simple enough (to the inexperienced), and sometimes it is, however when it isn’t, you usually don’t realize until it’s too late, and you’ve already caused damage.
I’d suggest sticking with wax, to start.
Loren
As a nonprofessional, when you do anything on your own, you understand that you are taking some risks. This applies across the board to health care (Should I take that suppliment?), auto repair, musical instrument repair, etc. If you are the type of personality who finds that some risk-taking is not acceptable, I suggest, for one thing, that you never drive your automobile on the freeway again. It is time-consuming and expensive to have professionals do everything for you. Personally, I would rather assume some risks (remove a violin top, for example) because it makes me feel more self-reliant. Of course, I am more apt to take a greater risk with an inexpensive instrument than I am with a priceless heirloom.
So wax and shellac are safe?
I’d stick with wax if you’re just experimenting. Shellac isn’t bad per se, but wax is easier to work with, particularly in terms of removal and shaping.
There is a special wax made for this sort of thing, it dries harder than your standard beeswax. You apply it with a thin piece of metal, like a cut off (bluted and smoothed tip) needle spring held in a wood handled pin vise, that you heat with an alcohol lamp and then touch to the block of wax. The wax instantly melts onto the metal tool, and then you apply the wax to the tone hole. This way, you can add small amounts of material at a time, and check the tuning between applications. It stays put, is easy enough to remove if necessary, can be shaped easily without chipping out like some glues or shallac can, and it comes in different colors, to match the flute’s finish.
Loren
Very cool Loren. It sounds like the kind of wax used for holding stuff down that you’re polishing (jewellers, etc, use it). I’d always called it black wax till I saw that it comes in different colors. The key to this stuff is that the polymer chains are all about the same length, leading to a hard solid with a very definite melting point, that is, it melts all at once rather than being thick, then turning thin when it’s 10 degrees hotter.
I’d wondered about the stuff used on one of my flutes – seemed very hard, but then beeswax can be pretty hard, too.
Thanks for the info.
If I am not mistaken, the kind of hard wax in colors that Loren is referring to can be purchased in most hardware or home-imporovement stores. Look in the aisle for wood refinishing. This kind of hard wax comes in sticks and is used to fill blemishes in furniture. I have several sticks in different shades of brown and reddish brown that I used to fill pits and scratches on stringed instruments. My personal opinion is that for the average do-it-yourselfer, the toothpick glue routine may be easier to do than the hot wax fix.