Saw a blackwood piccolo while looking at Boehm flutes a few days back. Was quite taken by surprise as I’ve never seen it before. It seems that they’re a new product in the Yamaha line of instruments. They’re also making wooden Boehm flutes, and I would imagine oiling the thing to be a nightmare. (the complicated keywork!) Don’t know how it plays like because sales lady would not let me try it, even if I was willing to shell out $ to buy it if I liked it.
There are lots of these wooden Boehm flutes out there now, Including those made by Chris Abell (well known around here for his whistles). Yamaha’s production model is relatively new, although I understand they’ve been making some for some of their endorsers for a while. Yamaha’s production model Seems like an attempt by Yamaha to grab a bit of Powell’s market share, and the price is certainly a good bit lower.
Yeah, oiling would be a bitch. I beleive the only way to oil the outside is to strip off all the keywork first - Can you say, send it back to the factory? Sure you can! I would trust the average local repair guy to do that sort of thing 
Anyway, I hear the (really good) wooden Boehms sound fabulous, but they certainly aren’t cheap!!!
Loren
I have an old German Moennig and an Abell. They are not that bad to oil. You do not have to take the keywork off.
I was able to try out one of the Yamaha wooden flutes at J.L.Smith & Co. in Charlotte a few months ago. It played quite well (though not as well as the Abell).
So how do you easily oil the outside completely, without getting oil on the posts and associated keywork? How long does the process take you? I can barely stand the process of oiling my keyless, so to me anything more complicated is a hassel!
Loren
For the outside, I use a small piece of a T shirt (maybe 1" by 1/2 ") with a little almond oil on it and push it around with a large tooth pick to get in the tight spots. Any oil on the silver wipes off easily. It takes about 10 minutes to oil either flute.
Oiling hasn’t become a chore to me yet. It could happen, though.
Yeah, I was thinking of 
But his certainly doesn’t come cheap either…and my experience with cheap instruments is that they are hell to play with. Take my Pakistani flute for example.
All but the cheapest clarinets and oboes and English horns are made of grenadilla. I have a such a clarinet I got when I was in the 7th grade and I’ve never oiled the outside of it (or the inside either!). My teacher was the leader of a well know band back during the “Swing Era”, and I never heard him mention oil. All I have ever done is swab it out after playing.
I also have owned four sets of Scottish bagpipes over the years and a practice chanter, none of which do I oil. The practice chanter I bought in 1940 and played in the jungles of New Guinea, the Moliccas amd the Philippines during WWII. I have never even swabbed it out after playing.
My present pipes consist of a set of silver and ivory mounted Hardies which I bought new in 1967 and a set of ivory and german silver mounted Lawries which date from about 1900. Both are made of grenadilla which is in perfect shape. I never swab out the drones, blow pipe or stocks. I have three pipe chanters; the Hardie, a Robertson and a Kennedy (made by Alphonse Kennedy, of Cork, Ireland), t(he old Lawrie is unplayable with modern chanter reeds,) and while I occasionally clean out their narrow neck section with a pipe cleaner, I do not oil them. And I should mention that a bagpipe chanter has much thinner walls than any wooden flue.
Based on my experience, Grenadilla is impervious to oil. Putting it on the exterior has only cosmetic benefit, and what you put in the bore is soon washed out