I thought I’d post a vid of me playing one of Tony Millyard’s Boxwood flutes which I find produce a lovely sweeter tone. I visited Tony’s workshops recently and he was busy making Blackwood and Mopane flutes for existing customers orders as well as building a stock of keyless flutes for the UK festivals. I was like a kid in a sweet shop and played a few but came away with this lovely flute, a steal at £475 new, I was wondering why you don’t see many Boxwood flutes at sessions?
Perhaps part of the reason is that there may tend to be a perception that boxwood, while it has the lovely sweeter sound you mention, doesn’t project as well as blackwood, which has more ‘bite.’ For instance, I played in a session once where a good player switched between two Olwell prattens, one boxwood, one blackwood, and the blackwood ‘cut through’ better, I thought.
I play a boxwood Irish flute. I’ve sold all my other Irish flutes of various types of woods. I find I hear myself better with boxwood, whereas when I play blackwood, I have more difficulty hearing myself. This leads me to believe that blackwood actually blends more than other woods, but this is probably my own conclusion, though I do notice it when I hear professional fluters playing as well.
Thanks Cathy, I suppose I asked for that I m guessing that session players prefer the blackwood because it is apparently louder as Jim has said and maybe even that it blends in better with other instruments as mentioned by Akiba, which is interesting. I guess flute makers will supply flutes according to buyers needs. I wonder if the top fluters started playing boxwood flutes at sessions would we all change to Boxwood.
Another reason is that blackwood is a hardier, more stable wood, heavier and denser compared to boxwood which is much lighter and more porous. Boxwood also tends to warp and requires more upkeep.
What Jason just said, boxwood can be a pain over time, particularly a keyed flute when wood starts changing dimensionally on you. Plus, Boxwood flutes tend to swell mightily at the first socket/tenon connection when played for a long period of time, leading to a flute that is stuck together, which israther inconvenient and unsafe (for the flute) to safely transport home.
Oh Lord, yes … the stuck-together flute syndrome. It’s only happened to me a couple of times, but it took days to get the thing apart! Cork grease in the sockets is a boxwood-flute player’s friend.
Shifting wood in the keyways can make keys stick or leak like crazy, too … tenons go out of round, sockets go all wonky, the boxwood gets kind of manky-looking over the years unless it’s stained … Honestly, if I had my choice I would probably swap at least one of mine for a comparable blackwood flute in a heartbeat.
I do like the light weight, but otherwise …
(I also have a boxwood pipe chanter, so I really have spent a lot of time with the stuff)
Yeeeeaaaah…I have a love hate relationship with Boxwood I wish I could play Blackwood flutes, so much easier to deal with. And you know CW, if you ever really want to get rid of your keyed Boxwood Olwell, I’ll buy it or find you a Blackwood flute to trade. I just can’t hack the 5 year or whatever wait to order one from the Olwell boys - life is too uncertain. Good thing I never got into pipes like you did!
Oddly enough two of the loudest flutes I have played were boxwood. The first was a 6 key Sam Murray borrowed from a friend. The other was an 8 key Firth and Hall. All of the other boxwoods I have encountered were indeed much quieter instruments, but they were smaller embouchure/tone holed flutes from an earlier period. Notably, the undercutting on the Murray to embouchure and tone holes has been the most pronounced I’ve ever seen on a modern day flute to date.
Jimmy Noonan plays a boxwood Rudall Rose that has no difficulty being heard.
I have a couple of boxwood antiques that used to swell at the top tenon but it was suggested that the cork grease should also go on the end grain of the tenon and that’s made the sticking pretty much disappear.
Yeah, I have the first tenon swelling and shrinking, especially since I live inland in California which is hot and dry and then at times play by the coast which is cool and moist. This is why I think thread is far superior to cork–I take the extra thread off on the coast and put it back on inland. Simple. Also, my flute is keyless so I don’t have to worry about keys. My Boehm flute has a 80 year old blackwood body that is very stable; thank goodness, since of course, it’s loaded with big fat keys.
On Dr. McGlinchey’s Facebook page, scroll down to his video of him playing flute in front of a bay window. Sure looks like boxwood to me, and I’m sure that “flute” would have no problem being heard in a session:
I have several boxwood flutes, 2 keyed and one without keys. I experienced the sticking tenon as well on only one occassion though. The maker of one of my flutes suggested using toilet ring seal, you know, the wax seal that goes on the very bottom of your toilet (you can get them at any hardware store). Since using that, I’ve not had a problem, plus the toilet ring lasts forever and is very cheap. As far as “manky” looking, boxwood does seem to attract debris (of course the light color of the wood shows dirt more), so Jason and Kathy are correct. I always wash my hands with soap and water before playing; however, that almost goes without saying for playing any instrument. Another item that I’ve used to clean the wood is made by Bore Doctor and called, “Doctor’s Wood Cleaner.” It cleans it up pretty good. With regard to warping, I guess the rule is, boxwood does warp. I’ve been fortunate so far and I haven’t had any warping on any of my flutes and one is at least 15 years old, the other two are newer, like 7 and 5 years old; however, I do keep them well oiled and humidified. I personally like the sound, the light weight and the look of boxwood and I think with reasonable care and maintance they will out live me. Plus the maker that I really trust has said that he has never seen a boxwood flute (in service) that has cracked and he has been making flutes for 30+ years; that’s good enough for me. Well, that having been said, I’ll bet there will be umpteen dozen photos sent in of cracked boxwood flutes. Hope this helps some.
It is a malleable wax. Modern toilet rings are made mostly from petroleum wax, a by-product of the oil refining process. In the good old days they were made of beeswax. Beeswax may still be a component of some rings. No matter what they are made from, they are still an enormously useful source of a waterproof wax, temporary sealant and lubricant in the home shop.
Beeswax is still a good solution and it can be bought at specialty woodworker supply or craft stores for a great deal more money than a toilet ring. Walmart sometimes has it in the crafts section of the store for about $3-5.00 an ounce. Beeswax comes with the peace of mind that it was not packaged for use at the bottom end of a toilet.
On the end grain of the tennn, provided they are of course not capped.
The toilet “Wax Gasket” is located under your toilet and goes into the waste pipe–you never see it unless you remove or replace your toilet; it is used to seal the toilet to the waste pipe to avoid leakage. I use it on the tenons and the end grain and it seals very well. It is applied at room temperature and a little bit goes a long way. I use it on both cork and thread wrapped tenons. As mentioned, it is a 100% petroleum wax. One of the concerns I have with boxwood is potential warpage of the tenons, a condition I want very much to avoid and the toilet wax gasket seems to do the trick. Plus it does an excellent job of sealing the tenons and helping to avoid air leaks. The stuff I use is amber in color, soft and easily put on the tenons at room temperture. I bought one of the wax gaskets about 6 years ago and have used about a 1/4 of it in all that time. In my estimation, the wax is as good today as it was 6 years ago when I bought it new. Another nice feature is that there is no oder that I can detect.
Because more flutes are made of blackwood? 
I m guessing that session players prefer the blackwood because it is apparently louder as Jim has said and maybe even that it blends in better with other instruments as mentioned by Akiba, which is interesting. I guess flute makers will supply flutes according to buyers needs. I wonder if the top fluters started playing boxwood flutes at sessions would we all change to Boxwood.
I wish I could play Blackwood flutes, so much easier to deal with. And you know CW, if you ever really want to get rid of your keyed Boxwood Olwell, I’ll buy it or find you a Blackwood flute to trade. I just can’t hack the 5 year or whatever wait to order one from the Olwell boys - life is too uncertain. Good thing I never got into pipes like you did! 
