Would anyone know about the proper way to care for instruments made of cane? I’m not to worried about the cane whistles I have (although the one in A is actually very decent), but I have access to some very good cane here in Alabama. It is very very hard and heavy compared to the cane or bamboo whistles I recieved from India. I thought I might try my hand at making something out of it.
Do you finish it? Soak it in oil? Paint the insides?
Anyone have any experience with this?
Do cane flutes warp (bend)? I got a flute from Steve Cox at Tall Grass Winds in December, and I’ve been playing it off and on during the winter. I live in Illinois where the winters are cold and most apartments (including mine) are very dry because of the heating.
Anyway, I picked up the flute to practise yesterday, and I can’t tell for sure, but I think it appeared a little more bent than usual (it had a pretty cool natural bend to it even earlier). My question: is this just my paranoia at work here, or do bamboo flutes tend warp because of changes to humidity (or lack of it)? It sounds as good as before.
~nash
I’ve never seen them bend; they do crack fairly enthusiastically; usually a little glue to close the crack and the flute plays as good as before.
I always wrap my bamboo flutes/whistles with cord - near the top, in the middle, and on the bottom. None of the flutes that I’ve wrapped this way have ever cracked or bent. For contrast, all but one of my unwrapped Dizi flutes cracked when I moved from Hawaii to Oklahoma way back in '83 to go to college. (The Dizi is also called a reed flute because of the extra hole that’s covered with a membrane that adds a kazoo-like sound to the flutes timbre.)
I don’t know of any sites that will coach you through the wrapping process, but I’m sure there’s a site out there that will explain how to do it.
Aldon
I was thinking about applying some kind of epoxy paint to the inside. It seems like I saw a make-your-own bamboo flute site that suggested that.
This stuff is hard as rock, and seems to have a fair amount of natural wax to it.
BTW, the decent cane whistle I got came wrapped in three places. It has a really cool sound. Not wild about the body though. Holes feel sorta wierd. I was thinking about cutting the head off to put on a brass Bb body.
Expect it to change the tuning.