Hi Gang,
I’m thinking about getting on a waiting list and am wanting some opinions on boxwood. I live in a fairly dry environment.
Has anyone had any problems? Is the sound worth the stress?
Thanks, 
Doc
Doc,
hopefully someone else can give you the scoop on boxwood.
I just wanted to say welcome back. You’ve been missed. I still chuckle to myself when I think of your website and your status as an “internationally known flute player” .
Eric
My experience with Boxwood mirrors virtually everything that I have read: It is very sensitive to changes in humidity - meaning it tends to warp. The good news is that it will generally return to it’s proper shape if put back into what ever humidity it was in before warpage.
The sound is lovely, and I’d certainly buy a boxwood flute as long as I could control it’s living conditions.
Loren
Just to give you another point of view to choose from…
The material a flute is made of doesn’t influence the flute’s sound at all, or at least not as much as other factores such as shape. This year in the Boxwood Festival 
Winter weekend in WI, i had the privilege to play about a dozen flutes by Rod Cameron. I was able to compare Rod’s boxwood and blackwood flutes, and though the blackwood flutes were a lot heavier, they had basically the same sound as the boxwood ones. Now, take 2 blackwood or 2 boxwood flutes of different models, and there is a lot of difference in how they sound.
Having said this, let me add that all parts of a flute experience are important. Boxwood is a lovely wood, and the feel of such a lightweight “delicate” flute certainly affects the player’s attitude towards the instrument, and will tend to generate a more “delicate” sound.
g
Two things:
-
I have a Bb flute in boxwood by Wilkes and it does warp when the humidity drops – it doesn’t warp lengthwise but intead the tenons warp out of round. That makes it hard to put the instrument together. But as someone said up above, putting it into a moist environment (Tupperware container with a wrung-out sponge) will bring everything back to normal in a day or two.
-
I’ll respectfully disagree with Glauber on the issue of whether materials matter – I was just playing duets with a friend who also has a Bb flute by Chris Wilkes; his is in blackwood and has a lined headjoint (my headjoint is unlined). There were pretty big differences between the sound of the two flutes when I played them. The boxwood could play just as loudly if not more so, but definitely had a more mellow tone, which may have to do with the lack of headjoint lining and/or the fact that boxwood doesn’t finish as smoothly in the bore, which can cause minor perturbations in the air column, leading to a more complex sound. The blackwood Bb had a darker, more penetrating tone.
I’m with Brad, Boxwood DOES sound different that Blackwood, Cocus, and the other, denser, woods. IMO, some people are sensitive enough to hear differences in wood, others simply are not (no offense to anyone).
I’ve had the opportunity to do blind listening tests with a number of whistles and flutes made in the same style by the same maker, and the differences were clear to me.
Loren
Yes, it seems the wood does affect the sound. Boxwood tends toward a lighter, smooth, buttery, elegant type of tonal quality in most cases. It has its own appeal. I’ve tried a few boxwood flutes. My impression in each case was that I loved how the flute resonates - its a great feeling to experience. Blowing into a boxwood flute is very satisifying. I also found it to be less penetrating than cocus and blackwood in most cases as well. However, as always, I’m sure there will always be an exceptions to the rule.
I had a blackwood Olwell w/ tuning slide and a friend had a boxwood Olwell with no tuning slide. Her flute had such a pleasant vibration to it when I would play it. There’s something about boxwood…
That’s fine, i just wanted to present the other point of view.
The scientific discussions on this topic usually go like this:
Does not!
Does too!
Does not!
Does too!
Does not squared!
Does too infinity!
and so on. I’ll stick to my opinion in this one: i think the model (even small differences between 2 flutes) and the player make more of a difference in the sound than the material. But if you think differently, that’s fine with me too. Music making is a complex thing, and you can’t explain it completely, no matter what the angle.
Have to add my disagreement as well; boxwood and blackwood do sound differently from one another. And I agree with the above, that boxwood is more sensitive to humidity than blackwood, and needs more attention to oiling as well (for the same reasons as humidifying.).
There is another reason for the sound difference as well, though, which plays into what glauber said, too. Very few flute makers will make the same flute in two different woods the same way. In other words, due to the differences in working these two woods (or any third or fourth wood type, ebony, cocus, etc. as well), the wall thicknesses will be a bit different and so will the bore texture. The makers will generally accomodate the wood they are working with to make it sound good, and in doing so will, in a sense, make two completely different models. So a Rudall in boxwood is, beyond the color and wood itself, a bit physically different than one in blackwood; it’s not as if a different wood type was poured into a standard-shaped mold.
So, while I do feel strongly that boxwood and blackwood have different sounds to them due to the material itself, there are also many other factors that are part and parcel that you will get a slightly different sound as well.
Perhaps what is important to note, though, is that the tonality differences between these woods will not greatly effect how you, or anyone else, sounds on a flute in general, so the choice of material will not make anyone sound completely different by changing the wood. The choice of wood might, however, begin to influence the way you play over time.
My thoughts on this, anyway…
Gordon
I like the “Does not!” “Does too!” “Does infinity!”. About as mature as we like to be on the board.
My experience with boxwood is that the warping tends to happen more with younger and/or less-well-seasoned timber. When my boxwood pipes were new, the first thing they did was shift. All over. Then they stopped after about a year of moving back and forth. . . now they’re pretty consistent. I would imagine that for mouthblown instruments, the changes would be more dramatic than with bellows-blown pipes (since all the pipes ever see is the ambient humidity).
That said, even living where the relative humidity likes to hang >90% for many months, then plummets for two months, I have noticed that with age (5+ years) the boxwood seems to move much less.
It’s all about feel, though, when it comes to timber. Some timber is just plain musical, and I think cocus and box fit that category. I guess I personally would think that box might be particularly suited to high-range flutes (like Eb) where the instrument tends towards the shrill . . . and I personally would probably go for a denser timber for a low instrument. Just me.
And soon . . . when I make the big move to Toronto . . . maybe I’ll get to play Brad’s boxwood Wilkes B-flat and he can play my lancewood Grinter B-flat. And then we’ll know, because, you know, playing two instruments tells you absolutely everything.
All said, I think that the biggest problems people have with timbers of any kind stem from how well seasoned they were in the beginning. Nobody likes to wait a couple of years for an instrument, but not only must the timber be well-seasoned (meaning, must have sit around for years in controlled conditions), but timber needs to rest between phases. So even if you could call someone who had a boxwood turning square, it should probably take that maker months to finish your instrument.
Stuart
I don’t know that boxwood is worse than anything else as long as it’s cared for. The one instrument that I had warp was blackwood. I have two antique boxwood flutes, one of which has never cracked. Two of three antique blackwood flutes had cracked. My modern boxwood instruments have been trouble-free. But I do oil all of my wooden flutes and whistles regularly (the box probably twice as often as others), and I keep them in tupperware for the most part due to frequent changes in indoor humidity around here.
As for the sound, I’d say that box is definitely different from blackwood. Black is clearer and more penetrating, while box is warmer and mellower. Just my impression.
With all this talk about boxwood, I just realized I have an antique short F flute in boxwood stashed away in a drawer. I had given up on it shortly after I bought because I couldn’t get a good fit at the heartjoint. The tenon/socket was misaligned, way out of whack, and in my frustration I reopened one of the pre-existing cracks in the socket by forcing it. I just pulled the flute out now and got a good chuckle. Live and learn.
Does not double infinity holy black magic
Doc,
I live in a very dry climate and play a new boxwood flute. The instrument is oiled often, and kept in an air-tight, gasketed, pistol travel case. A saturated, clay-type guitar humidifier is always inside the case, and the flute is played daily. Mold growth has not been an issue to date. The joints do grow and shrink, most notably growing after extended hours of play (more than four hours seems to cause tightness in winter, less in summer due to higher ambient temps, resulting in less condensation). I can minimize joint sweling by periodic swabbing while playing. The flute assembles normally the following day after being stored in the case. In short - no problems and hours of great pleasure. All the best, steve
Doc,
Ialso have a new boxwood keyless flute. I live 100 miles due south of U2.
Our two flutes were introduced to each other for the first time at a session in the arid West Texas area. The only problem with swelling Is, like Steve said, after several hours of playing without swabbing periodically. I oil lightly, both inside and out, with a denatured linseed oil from Daniel Smith Art Supply, which Casey Burns recommended in place of almond oil that I was using earlier on. I store the flute unassembled in a tupperware container with a damp sponge in a baggy most every night. In my humble opinion, boxwood is my choice of timber for flute. It is lightweight and speaks with a nice full, I love the sound of boxwood. Maybe someday I can afford retro keyed job like U2’s, but feels and looks so good in the natural blondish color of boxwood, and I love the woody sound. I haven’t noticed any warping since I started not oiling it quite so much, and storing it in some humidity at night. Don
I bought a boxwood G flute from P. Bleazey,
who said that boxwood often grows on mountains.
The uphill side is under tension, so it may warp
when the flute is new. However this is over with
quickly, so if the flute has been around awhile,
it shouldn’t warp. With breakin and oiling,
it’s stable stuff, he says.
Oddly Phil B. doesn’t want me to humidify
the flute, but keep it in its bag in
a cool dry place. Confusing, the opposite
of the prevailing thinking, I think.
For whatever reason, blackwood and
boxwood sound different. Best
Jim - What’s your opinion of your Bleazley flute? I don’t think I’ve seen a review of them, and his prices are nice and low.
Eric
I dont actually play a boxwood flute, but my uilleann pipes are boxwood (and theyre a d set , not flat pitch as is more common with boxwood pipes). I have played boxwood flutes though and notice the same thing with my pipes: little or no discernable difference in volume, but a “sweeter” tone. As for why this is, Hamish Moore told me once that boxwood cannot be bored out and polished as finely as blackwood can, hence a less direct and piercing tone.
As an aside, my chanter has been getting a very slight “banana” curve lately. I`ll try the tupperware/sponge thing and see if it helps at all.
All this talk about sound of boxwwod makes me drool
I´m on the list for a boxwood R&R from McGee.
/Peter
I posted a review just a couple of weeks ago; it’s about halfway down this page.
Chas,
I’d forgotten you posted a review! Mea culpa…
Has your review changed now that you’ve had a chance to spend more time with the flute?
Eric