Do not swab your flute out completely. Pull a silk rag moistened with almond (or vegetable) oil through your flute before you put the flute away. This will put some oil on the flute and distribute the water, getting rid of puddles at the same time. You don’t want large drops of water – puddles of distillate – inside your flute. But small bits of water won’t hurt a well-oiled flute. The moisture sealed inside the case will help to prevent cracking in the winter.
Your best bet is to keep the flute in a small drawer along with a hygrometer (Radioshack- @ $20). Then put a rag in a small cup of water. The rag will wick the water into the atmosphere inside the drawer, and hydrate your flute. Start to worry if the relative humidity goes below 40-45%. Little effort and expense for a large return.
now there’s someone who has managed to care for a host of flutes over the years (including 100+ yr. old flutes), with no cracks in a harsh climate.
for those who might be new to wooden flutes:
early on i did not care for flutes in a manner such as david mentioned. here is what happened:
cracked:
2 unlined heads sweetheart rosewood
1 unlined head seery blackw
2 unlined heads butler (rosew/cocus (?)
1 lined barrel hamilton blackw
no cracks:
1 lined old german blackw (?)
1 lined old french flute blackw
1 blackw abell whistle
since i started taking care:
cracks:
2 lined barrels (humidity went below 40%, on two seperate occassions)
no cracks:
8 lined flute heads 1 unlined (blackw+cocus, new + old)
I’m glad to hear the advice from David. Thanks! For some reason I had been under the impression that I shouldn’t oil my flute when it is still moist. (I always waited a day after playing before oiling.) But if this seems to have worked for you, I’ll give it a try.
Thanks, Jeanie
I live in a really dry climate, where winter rh is routinely below 20% and sometimes dips into the teens and even single digits. Indoor heating just makes it worse. Bread does not mold here–it mummifies. Human skin starts to look like alkalai flats.
So I take my flute care very seriously. My blackwood Copley lives inside a renovated clarinet case, with an accurate hygrometer in the same compartment. This whole package then goes into a plastic tub with an airtight lid whenever the flute is not in use.
I swab and oil it as David describes. I use the Bore Doctor’s oil, which does not polymerize, so I oil at least every other time I use the flute, or daily in really dry conditions. Never enough oil to pool or run–just a light coat inside and out with a silk swab. All it’s meant to do is moderate the movement of moisture in and out of the wood.
When the flute is played every day or every other day, the moisture left over from playing (after a light swab) has been enough to keep the case humidity at 55% to 65%. If I have to miss a few days in a row, and the forecast looks like low rh, I dampen a small piece of sponge inside an old spice jar with holes in the lid. This goes inside the plastic tub, but outside the clarinet case. With this set up, the humidity has never gone below 55% or over 70%.
Works well for me and my flute.
I know I “live in a swamp”, but I have long done exactly as David says. Even in Summer, I run an oiled swab thru my flutes every time after playing. I only ever dry-swab if they are really really wet inside. And I store them in a wooden trunk with a small cup of water in there with them.
None of my flutes have cracked.
M
I’ve often wondered about those who oil their flutes, then stand them up so the oil can drip out the end. I have never put that much oil in my flutes, is that really what one is supposed to do?
I’ve seen my teacher tip a wee bit of almond oil into the head of his flute thru the blowhole at the beginning of a lesson and then swab it out in a minute or two. I don’t know if he does it EVERY time he assembles the flute, but I’ve never seen him not do it. Kind of interesting …
I’ve seen my teacher tip a wee bit of almond oil into the head of his flute thru the blowhole…
I’m assuming this is an unlined head, right? For those of you who swab with an oily rag, when swabbing out a lined head, do you use a different (non-oily) rag?
While I don’t stick to a regular oiling schedule, I do keep a close eye on the humidity level. I know some advocate frequent oiling and others never oil their flutes, but there seems to be nigh-universal agreement that constant and level humidity is a good way to fend off trouble.
I shake my head-joint out every so often while I am playing because it tends to gather droplets of distillate that interfere with the sound. And I do swab my head-joint when I’m done for the day. I use a half-piece of kitchen toweling paper wrapped around one end of a flat stick that measures about 1/2" wide X 1/8" thick and about 8" long. Nothing fancy but it does the trick.
You can make a dandy humidifer that will fit in the flute case by using the shell of a chap-stick tube, or use the protective tube that super-glue comes in. Drill some small holes in the tube and put a piece of damp sponge or paper in the tube.
Yes it is; I should have clarified that, huh?
I basically do the reverse of David, FWIW – I use the silk swab for drying, and paper towel pieces for oiling. Ditto on the HJ shaking (making sure to hold onto the barrel, too!!!) during & after playing depending on how dry the air is. If the flute’s pretty well-waterproofed to begin with, a wee bit of moisture shouldn’t hurt anything.
Interesting subject. I’ve been noticing when I play my Boxwood flute there is almost no moisture inside. I hardly ever see droplets. Is this characteristic of Boxwood? I do keep it properly oiled and here on Long Island the rh has been 50 - 60 of late.
BillG
Now that it is winter after a half hour or so of playing I might start driping it is cold in Jersey. I usually dry swab but I will have to try oil swabing it right after playing. I wouldn’t want to put oil on Brass whoever asked I play a partially lined head and a git of oil does get on bass doesn’t doo any thing but I would think it would make it dirty.
Bryan Byrne says NOT to oil his flutes. I’ve had one a few months and haven’t oiled it, as per his instructions. But I’m getting nervous. I’m keeping it in a humidified box at around 55% humidity, and playing it almost daily.
I oil the other flutes I have.
Any Byrne owners have any experiences to share?
Thanks, Jeanie
Hi Jeannie: I bought my Byrne used, but somehow didn’t get the message that one shouldn’t oil the flute. My bad, I was given all the original paperwork with the flute! Just don’t recall.
I treat the flute as I do all my others. If I play, i swab with the lightly oiled rag afterwards. What can it hurt? I don’t know.
Cheers
Mary
Hey Dana: 
A boxwood flute will make a lot less condensation than a blackwood or cocobolo flute. I definitely don’t get none, but it is a lot less.
I wanted to point something out that I noticed last night. Sometimes a few drops of water will collect in a socket that aren’t wicked up during normal swabbing. Be on the lookout for these, as sockets are quite susceptible to cracking, and the non-uniform swelling from a poorly placed drop or two can certainly exacerbate any problems in the wood.
common sence Charlie, that’s why i dry-swab every time.
Thanx for that tip. I’ll check it out next time I play it. Love this list!
BillG
I finally decided to get serious about this stuff, because I’ve been running the (gas) heater at home a lot and my humidity’s gone down as far as 29%(!) when the heat stayed on for a long time one night.
The first step was to oil my flute, which I do, but not as often as I should. I usually use walnut oil but I decided to try some Conn Bore Oil, and it works just fine. Doesn’t have any smell that I noticed, and doesn’t seem to gunk up the flute at all.
Then, I finally finished making my new flute case, which involves a wooden box from a Reeves paint set (on sale, $14… gave the paints to a friend) and some eggcrate packaging foam ($3), cut to fit and with slots for the three sections of the flute. I made a humidifier using an old cork-grease tube with some leftover foam wetted and stuffed inside, with holes drilled in the tube.
I left my hygrometer in the case all day yesterday, and it stayed around 57% humidity inside. The humidity only peaked at 61% after putting the played but swabbed flute, so it seems like a pretty good setup.
I have about three pistol cases with the same egg crate suff inside where I store my flutes. I’ve never checked to see how - how not - air tight they were. Looking closely at them, there seems to be a rim instide of a rim, tongue and groove type thing. I use the little button type cigar humidifiers, two in the large case and one in the smaller ones and they seem to do the trick as well - rh to around mid to high 50’s.
Here on Long Island we don’t get all that dry in the winter but enough so to keep humidification going. We have hot water old fashioned radiators - great heat but low humidity.
BillG
You are keeping it very stable, if you play it almost daily, and keep it humidified at about the same percentage. That’s the most important thing, along with warming it up before you play it, and swab it after. The more stable a wooden instrument is kept, the better, so your flute is probably fine.
I can’t offer an opinion about why Bryan says not to, but if that is part of his warranty conditions, then it’s probably best to follow his instructions. If something does happen-especially since you are keeping it as well as anyone can, then it’s his responsibility to make it right. I can understand your concern, because you wouldn’t want anything to happen to your lovely flute, but if he says no, then he probably knows why, and has good reason for it.
Hi folks,
After lurking for a while I thought I’d come out of hiding. I’ve recently acquired an Olwell bamboo D flute. I’m new to the flute after tooling around on the whistle for many years. It’s going to be a lot of work. But at least I got a sound out of it!
My question for this thread concerns care and maintenance, especially in winter. I’ve read all of the posts so far, but haven’t seen anything addressing bamboo as a material. If anyone else out there has a bamboo flute, I’d like to know what steps to take. Should I swab it dry, oil it occasionally, if so how often and with what kind of oil. I assume that bamboo is relatively hardy, but I don’t want to develop any cracks in this beautiful instrument.
Any advice gratefully accepted!