I just ordered a Olwell Pratten and was thinking of haveing it made in boxwood. I have always know that this wood is a little more troublesome, but has a lovely sound. Is it worth it, or should I just stick with blackwood?
thanks, Jack Devereux
I have a boxwood Abell D whistle and am VERY pleased with it.
There’s really not so much more trouble - just oiling a bit more frequently, especially during break-in, and keeping it properly humidified when not being played helps a lot.
The trouble, as I understand it from “fluthiers” is in finding pieces of appropriate sizes; there’s not as much of it left as there used to be.
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Tommy Kochel
www.tommyswirled.com
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“Entertainment is about telling everybody that everything’s alright but music is on the side of the upsetters and that’s where I’m at.”
- Bill Bruford, April 10, 1976, Sounds.
The only real problem with boxwood, for the end user, is warpage: If you let the instrument get too far away from the moisture content it was at when the instrument was made, then it’s going to start warping and shrinking on you. This is regardless of how long the wood was “Seasoned” during the production process: Most of our European Boxwood stock is around 30 years old, and even with lots of resting time we have to re-ream our bores multiple times, and toss lot’s of nearly finished pieces because they’ve warped too much. Hmph.
Still, Boxwood makes a wonderful woodwind, and it’s far more resistant to cracking than Grenadilla and some of the other woods, so go for the Boxwood as long as you are prepared to keep the instrument humidified. (Well, don’t over humidify though, as Boxwood can be prone to a very nasty sort of mold…)
Loren
Personally, I would find a boxwood Pratten-style instrument a little odd. I like boxwood for its warmth and the soft edge to the sound. I’m getting a small-holed Olwell with a partially-lined head in boxwood. If I were after a big sounding flute that can be played loud and dirty, I’d get his big-holed model in blackwood with a lined head.
wrt boxwood and care, I have a few flutes and whistles made from boxwood. the one flute I got new has a slight warp in one joint – it’s just a little out of round. Now I’m reassembling it after swabbing, and that’s keeping it from getting worse.
Umm, I hope the flute in question has metal bands on the socket side, otherwise you’re risking a socket crack there Charlie 
Loren
Yeah, it’s got bands on the socket side. I’d like to retrofit bands for the tenon side, but the flute was designed not to have them, so I’m hesitant to do it.
Boxwood is pretty resilient, and forgiving, but if you’ve got wood on wood in the socket/tenon joint, which is exacerbated by swelling during playing, it’s bad news waiting to happen.
My advice: If the flute is pretty much going to stay at the current humidity levels, then you’re best to have the the out-of-round tenon (or socket) turned concentric again, or at least turned/sanded to the point where there will be no more wood to wood contact.
Banding the tenons, IMO is not a great idea, because if the socket shrinks over time, then you have metal on wood 
, which is far worse than wood on wood.
Loren
I’m kind of in agreement with Chas in that a Boxwood Pratten is a little ‘oxymoronish’(have I just invented a new word? 
),
BUT,I LOVE Boxwood- for it’s natural visual beauty-I love the orange lustre of aged Boxwood,plus the smooth,mellow sound (described by some as ‘creamy’ or ‘buttery’) is music incarnate to my ears.
I personally tend to link Boxwood to Ruddall type smallhole flutes/Baroque Traverso’s-but then this is a personal preference also.
Whatever your Flute style preference-welcome to the Boxwood lovers club!
If I’m not mistaken,the great ITM Fluter Roger Sherlock played on a Boxwood instrument.
Hey Loren,
I think I have a spot of that nasty mold on my boxwood UP chanter. It’s not in a very noticeable spot (underneath the C natural key), but do you know if there’s any kind of stuff out there that could be used to remove it?
My own opinion is that if you get a boxwood flute with a lined headjoint, the lining will sharpen the edges of the boxwood sound enough to make a good what-everyone-associates-with-the-word-Pratten flute. An unlined or French-slid headjoint would probably sound more buttery. (I felt like “slide” needed past-tensing, I guess; verbing does weird language!)
I like that: French-slid. “Hey, how’s the suspension on that French-slid headjoint?” “Mmm, smooth.”
Boxwood also has a the distinct advantage over the darker timbers in density, which is quite noticeable in a big flute (e.g. Bb).
And, if you can get your hands on curly boxwood: wow, what a nice aesthetic.
Stuart
You are right, the boxwood and Pratten aren’t normally seen together. I am concidering boxwood not only for its sound (though that is the main reason), but also for the look of it.
But then, that begs the question . . . and it’s why people are commenting . . . the “sound” of a Pratten-style flute and the “sound” of boxwood, speaking with regard to the conventional-wisdom, are more or less opposites.
I’m not saying it’s a bad combination, just an interesting one.
Stuart
Loren, what sort of mold, exactly, would this be???
It’s 81% here . . . do I need a flute de-humidifier . . . short of turning on the AC, what do you suggest?
I have a keyed a curly boxwood Burns Rudall copy. It has an unlined head and is..Geez I don’t know… it’s just amazingly rich and wonderful.
It is also a bit banana-like due to warping. Casey said he’d replace the mid-section but I don’t know if I’m willing to give it up long enough for him to do it…and what if the new section is less amazingly wonderful?
I also spent some quality time with his ergonomic standard in the same wood. It was a very cool flute. Good volume and power but with a nice complexity and richness that I don’t find in blackwood. Not that I’m knocking blackwood it’s also wonderful but different. 
I was recently talking to Peter Noy who said that boxwood was less likely to crack than blackwood but more likely to warp.
I’m kind of a purist but I’d say if your going to do boxwood get an all-wood flute from Pat. A lined boxwood headjoint seems like a tragedy to me. Maybe the french style semi-lining would be OK but I still think you’d lose some complexity of tone. Maybe Stuart can comment on that having, recently recieved one.
Doc
Among my boxwood flutes I had two Richard Potters and a Proser from the 1780s which were perfectly straight until one of the Potters decided to do a bit of a banana at the bottom for no obvious reason last year.
Perhaps I left part in the sun for half an hour ? I don’t usually expect sun !
They haven’t moved since.
Can’t see why people worry if a two hundred old flute is a little bent !
There seems to be a habit of calling a flute " Pratten " just because it has a long middle section. This isn’t helpful.Such long sections can sound Rudally or whatever.
I have a long middle section on a boxwood Wilkes but it doesn’t give the flute a coarser tone than my blackwood Wilkes ( and so called Prattens seem to be valued for some element of raucousness. Like a Shawm, perhaps ! ).
Patrick’s Pratten model in boxwood ROCKS. Go for it, play the hell out of it, you’ll love it.
Well, there you go.
Doc
…
I guess I personally don’t find the idea oxymoronic, but it just goes to support the idea that timber is a very minimal participant in the sound of the flute (when compared to cut of the embouchure / flute design / the player). I think timber choice may have even more impact vis-à-vis extremes of climate (which might not be good for cocus, say) or size of the flute. A keyed, thick-walled blackwood Bb or A flute is heavy.
Boxwood may warp, but I think most folks with boxwood flutes would say that it doesn’t seem to affect the sound much.
Boxwood also, in my own experience, seems to prefer whatever conditions under which it was made. Nearly all the boxwood that’s come my way (swampy) has swollen on arrival.
Stuart
Oh, yeah . . .
The single midsection does let you put the G# key in a better spot, I think. As Andrew suggests, it’s not the defining feature of any make of flute.
Stuart