Anyone have experience with Birch Flutes?
If so what are they like?
Birch can look a lot like Apple or Boxwood
Birch seems to be used for various Parts for Bodhrans, Pipes as well as String Instruments, but I’m interested in finding out if anyone has made Birch Flute?
It would really need impregnating I think Ben to get up to the kind of density we lust after. EG:
Water 1.0
Pear 0.65
Birch 0.67
Boxwood, 0.95
Blackwood 1.27,
Mopane 1.3,
Gidgee 1.35
Delrin 1.356
Does this mean that Water would make a better flute than Pear, Birch, or Boxwood?
I’m a wet player already; wouldn’t work for me.
Sure, but carving the embouchure sucks…
Probably. But like the Covid 19 vaccine, you have to keep it refrigerated…
Reducing the density to take it below boxwood…
Damn you sir. I am outfoxed!
Sucks? That’s where I’ve been going wrong, I’ve been blowing…
H
https://soundcloud.com/holmesflute/hop-jigs-silver-slipper-the-loom-and-broken-loom
While I don’t post as much anymore, I still lurk around the boards periodically. Just reading this thread I have to say:
- Y’all crack me up, and
- I love all my fellow Chiffers.
Thanks for brightening a cold, cheerless Monday morning. This is by far my leading candidate for thread of the year!
Eric
We are indeed a lucky bunch, Jayhawk, not only playing (and/or making) a great instrument, but in being able to enjoy the fellowship of like-minded souls around the entire world.
I became especially aware of that when the bushfires on our east coast swept down to our back fence here in Malua Bay, and the surreal scenes from our local beach made it to front pages of newspapers around the world (not much more than a year ago). I was completely “cut off by modern communications” as Milligan put it so many years ago - no power, no internet, no mobile coverage (the local towers burnt) for a week or so, and then sporadically on and off after that as stressed and damaged systems continued to fail.
But when I did check out Chiff & Fipple, sitting in the car at the top of a high hill looking across the bay to a distant mobile tower, there was a thread asking after my safety. How nice is that?
I know things are looking pretty gloomy in many parts of our Irish music diaspora right now, but I think with the vaccines and growing awareness of governments we can see the glimmer of hope at the other end of the flute bore. So line up for those jabs, and let’s get this show back on the road!
You are, Terry, a treasure.
Now, jim stone, my only concern about you is your proclivity for exaggeration. “Gem” yes. “Diamond in the rough” certainly. “Pure gold”, undoubtedly.
But “treasure”?
Oh, alright then!
(Heh heh…)
C’mon, Terry. You know the old saying: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
I’m not a master flute craftsman but from my experience and tests material has a small effect on tone. So I’d think birch would work fine, although may not be the ideal wood.
Neatly done, there, awildman! Mortally wounded, I retire… (tee hee…)
I’d advance a small amendment for your consideration, Narzog. “_Within the range of generally suitable material_s, material has a small effect on tone.” I’ve actually put the matter to the test at http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/pine_prattens.htm
Putting pine into the picture, we get:
Pine 0.4
Pear 0.65
Birch 0.67
Boxwood, 0.95
Water 1.0
Blackwood 1.27,
Mopane 1.3,
Gidgee 1.35
Delrin 1.356
It is probably instructive to note that flute makers have always used the heaviest, hardest, finest timbers we had access to, and could work. So fruit woods back in medieval and renaissance times, ramping up to boxwood in the baroque, cocuswood once the West Indies were taken over, and African timbers subsequently. Given all the work that goes into a flute, skimping on the materials doesn’t seem sound economics. (Pun alert…)
Terry ~ I thought that Blackwood is slightly denser that Mopane. According to wood data base Blackwood is Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): 1.08, 1.27. Mopane is Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .88, 1.08. Not that it matters a lot, but it’s one of those things that I’d read on the forum ~
Another matter ~. Jonathan Walpole has been using English hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) to make flutes. He says they are very similar to Boxwood. They look great! http://jonathanwalpole.com/keyless-d-flutes
I think I’ve seen various figures for both woods (all woods?). You can imagine regional variations being an issue here. So it’s really only a rough guide.
Yes, that hawthorn looks nice doesn’t it. I wonder if Jonathon does anything to bulk it - I see figures like 0.78 for it.
I feel we probably would benefit from looking into a lot of other technical aspects of our materials. Does the Janka Hardness Test tell us anything? What about the radial and tangential shrinkage? Arggghhhh, life is so short…*
(*I’m probably waxing a little philosophical as we are farewelling our local bodhran player next Thursday, a victim of cancer. Makes you aware of your age. And here’s me just ordering 30 more tuning slides to go with all the keys and ring wire I’d recently ordered. The chap that makes the tuning slides for me is 86, 13 years my senior. I’ll hitch my boat to his star.)
Even within the same tree you can have different densities(and hardness). Any numbers you see will be typical, but wont necessarily be an average, and definitely will not be definitive.
Lots of good info from the Wood Database man himself. https://youtu.be/IfXW9Tw-3O0