Hey there is a really informative thread about boxwood over on the Uilleann pipe forum. It has some really great information I hadn’t heard before.
Here’s the link:
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=39480
Doc
Lots of misinformation (mixed in with some accurate info) in that thread, all well intentioned, of course, but as usual it’s a mix of experience and inexperience talking.
Loren
Talking from my own experience I would say they are Patience and Enthusiasm. Time is the battlefield. One cannot experience the whole of the latter. Therefore all conversations are marked by both experience and the lack of it.
I’d be interested to hear what’s ill-informed over there (just out of my own general curiosity - it was an informative thread!). I found it especially interesting Rod Cameron’s technique for ‘relaxing’ boxwood for his flutes. Man, I should subscribe to the flute-makers list on Yahoo - I miss Rod’s evocative musings on flutes and the world at large!
Loren, other than starting with the obvious: quality timbers from the get-go, what sorts of things are done at VH to stabilize box?
Cheers,
- Ryan
Spittle,
I’ve got a ton of stuff I’m trying to get done today, and I may have very limited internet access over the weekend, but I’ll try to get back to this as soon as I can. Obviously the answers to your questions are not “short”.
Loren
100% accurate or not, the descriptions I’ve read of boxwood have convinced me that it’s not what I will choose for a flute, unless a boxwood beauty literally falls into my lap. With the variance of humidity in my area from winter to summer, and the fact that I heat my home with wood, I’m very happy to go with blackwood.
In this case, a little information goes a long way.
Jennie
I really think the dangers of boxwood are greatly exaggerated. A lot of us have the huge variations in indoor humidity – here it can be very cold and ~20 percent or so one night and rain the next day and go up to 80%. There is a very simple solution: tupperware and a cigar humidifier. A hygrometer is a good idea, too. Total investment: about $15 if you go for one of the cheapie hygrometers, $30 if you go digital. The effort is modest, but definitely more than some are up for.
I’ve become a little lax about it in the last year or two. Of all my boxwood flutes, seven right now, one had a tenon that went out of round last year (not sure why), and one has a ring that gets loose sometimes.
Of course, if you’re happy with the sound and feel of blackwood, you probably don’t want a boxwood flute anyway. Of course, I’m just the opposite.
Boxwood can crack…
The Upper tenon was replaced maybe during the civil war. so now it has a new tenon.
But after 200 years it still sounds great!
Can you name a decent flute wood that can’t?
Nonsense Jon, Charlie says Boxwood is relatively trouble free, you must be dreaming.
Loren
Well there is cracking, and there is CRACKING!
I use this stuff called delrin… 
I once had a boxwood antique flute head joint crack like a shotgun going off, or a yardstick smashed on a desk. (I hope I don’t give you nightmares!)
I’ve heard mention of certain “relaxation techniques” for warped boxwood, but I don’t recall hearing specifics … anyone here got any ideas what they could be?
That would be a good thing to know. Anyone?
Aha, now I know where Sam Murray gets his wee keys. What’s up with the foot on that pretty thing, Jon?
Adjustable foot, just in case it’s not flat enough.
Boxwood, grenadilla, any wood that can, when properly worked, make it through a hundred years or so with only a coupla cracks sounds like good stuff. Standing up to life as a flute (or worse, not being played) has got to be torture on wood. I would liken the moisture cycle and stresses from tenons to what hardwoods go though on a boat, and nobody expects an 1850 wooden boat to have much of its original wood left in functional (let alone beautiful) condition.
Just trying to give the makers and the woods their due. Then again, Hawkes would have been nuts not to use Delrin were it available at the time. 
What a wild idea! Thank you for explaining it!
I should have qualified: that was a guess. It could be some kind of strange growth, like the stuff that was sprouting from the cork on my Ronnberg. I tried to clean it off, but the head-joint got up, smacked me in the noggin, and ran off with me little Boosey piccolo.
Hi Cathy,
This flute was made to play at A=415 to A=440. The idea was to set the cork slide and foot to the corrisponding number on the slides. They used to give you a seperate first section for every tuning, tat were numbered. The foot register,(as Andrew informed me, when I called it “the Extendo foot”) was much more accurate tuning of the foot as you pull out the slide. The foot had froze up about 100 years ago, was abear getting it out of there… 