Pardon me for spelling “fibre” according to Her Majesty’s English.
The subject is:-
Anyone know of anyone making
simple system flutes with carbon fibre?
I am not talking MATIT here - they be making Boehm flutes
I want a carbon whistle. That would be awsome
oops, double post.
This might be kind of off-subject, I’ve never seen any flutes or any woodwinds made out of carbon fiber. I have some experience in building boats with composites and fibre-glass and from what I know, raw carbon fiber can be a pretty big health hazard. I’ve heard that just to handle the stuff takes alot of protective clothing because the fibers are very stiff and lightwheight and they’ll very quickly get into your skin and lungs. Carbon fiber is also ridiculously expensive, but aren’t most handmade flutes expensive? A carbon flute would be sweet though.
John Coltman’s experiments, published in Scientific American Magazine, proved that the construction material of the flute has little influence on sound production.
As A maker of woodwinds, I have found that any vibration felt in the flute body robs energy from the excited air-column. It is the internal physical shape of the instrument and toneholes that determine acoustic perfection. Almost all Acoustic Engineers feel the same.
Except for us acoustic physicists who know that the acoustic impedance match, the viscous and thermal effects, while small, do make a difference as well… 
I’ve heard that a thousand times and do not agree. Maybe the engineers you’re talking about just don’t have a musical ear? I don’t think the differences are big, but they exist. I’ve read the article (not very carefully though) and I don’t think Mr Coltman really analyses all the sound variables.
I played several examples of the same model of soprano saxophone (yanagisawa) in regular brass, bronze and silver, and recorded them, the same day, in the same room, with the same setup. They do sound different. There are more differences between a brass and a silver sax than between two brass ones. (At the end, I took the brass one, very good horn, it’s for sale if anyone’s interested 
)
I’m quite sure that if all professional Boehm players use silver flutes it’s not only because silver is beautiful.
I completely agree. And different materials rob it differently. Try Generation whistles in brass or nickel, they sound different. Definitely.
John Coltman’s experiments … proved that the construction material of the flute has little influence on sound production.
Here we go again…
my experiments have proven that a fluteplayer can sound like a cow, but a cow cannot possibly sound like a fluteplayer who is actually sounding more like a fluteplayer than a cow.
unless it’s ‘the cow that ate the blanket’. then you have a constipated cow and a fluteplayer without a blanket. which proves cows and fluteplayers really shouldn’t hang out together, or at least not try to share the same blankie. but hey sometimes i do get lonely…
Fight! Fight! 
Kevin Krell
We NEED you to finish the concrete flute, so we can settle this once and for all!!! 
They missed a trick here only using plain old carbon fibre, plainly a Diamond or a Buckyball flute would be the bee’s bendies.
I think you mean buckytubes rather than buckyballs. I think a buckyball (with a buckyfipple), being closed-end, would be more like an ocarina.
Yes, I know you’re a newbie here and so I will take some care to politely suggest that when partaking in a topic you might read the first post in the topic and follow any links provided therein. I took some trouuble to provide a link to a carbon fibre maker of Boehm flutes.
As to the other participants who want a bun fight about material differences from material differences, I would like to emphasise that my interest in carbon fibre flutes is prompted by the fact that it is a very strong, durable material and very LIGHT.
The topic is about whether there are any simple flute makers making in carbon fibre. However, I do not wish to be PRESCRIPTIVE about how you all choose to partake in this topic. Have a bun fight if you must. But please, PLEASE, Brer Chiffers, please spell “fibre” according to the Queen’s English. If the Finns can do it (Matit website refers, so can you)!
Of course there could be a variety of factors at work here, but my fella sounds so much better now that he’s ditched his carbon fiber bow and gone back to a wooden one. The fiber bow seemed to magnify everything almost to the point of shrillness. (And yes, I could tell the difference with my eyes closed and back turned 100% of the time)
OK, back to flutes … 
Flute fibah frum New Hamshah…???
Edit: I do have a sputter coater setup just for fiber if someone wants to hold the record for the world’s most expensive flute…be glad to help ! 
Carbon fiber has been used in stringed instruments with a degree of success. It sounds better than instruments up to a certain range of quality, however (to my ears and mamy way more accomplished than myself) there’s still a difference in timbre, etc. between a carbon fiber cello or mandolin and a master-made wooden one. Also, carbon fiber will not “open up”. Furthermore, woodwinds work differently than stringed instruments. Regardless, the mileage is likely to be similar, better than plastic or delrin probably, but probably still not like wood. Science and technology have a long way to go to equal nature, I think that’s been proven time and again.
I think science is a way to describe nature, just as poetry is, only a little more accurate 
I know technology is able to reproduce an item a million times within given specs, nature isn’t.
Don’t confuse what you feel with what you know. As an engineer with a scientific education I KNOW materials do not make a difference, as a flutemaker I FEEL they do.
Talasiga’s post was about the use of carbon fibre in simple system flutes. Why does nobody use it? Because the material is expensive and not in demand. IMHO acoustics have nothing to do with it.
Hmmm … trees, leaves, viruses, hydrogen molecules, stars etc etc ?