I recently bought a new plastic cleaning rod for my wood flute. I presently have it VERY FIRMLY stuck in the end piece (furthest from the emboucher hole) along with a piece of cloth. Does anyone have a suggestion for how to get it out of there…preferably without damaging my Olwell?
Things already tried:
Have you tried pushing a dowel in from the other end and gently pounding? Another thing is, if the piece of cloth is big enough, try pulling the cloth out rather than the stick.
Try wetting the cloth. Cloth often shrinks down in size when it’s wet.
Good Luck.
Have you had the new plastic rod through the end-section before? Or did it get stuck the first time that you tried it? Without that information, it is hard to know which direction would be better to attempt to remove the rod and cloth. Have you tried using a twisting motion with the rod?
ACK! I hate when that happens. Those thick plastic cleaning rods plus a cloth can get positively evil (there are some thinner ones out there, but they’re like hen’s teeth). I’m with chas on the cloth-tugging thing; that’s how I’ve done it in the past. (and for future reference, more passes with less wadding is good) At one point I was tempted to try cutting the cloth away as much as possible but was able to work the cloth out with patience plus careful (and lucky) untwisting. One more question … if the flute was really damp (and as a result the cloth, too), might things loosen a bit as they dry?
OK, I’m hoping, I know, but hey, hope isn’t a bad thing …
Assuming it’s a keyless foot piece, soak the whole thing in oil until the cloth is thoroughly saturated. That should make the cloth slippery, I would think. Then wipe off the outside, put on some rubber gloves or do whatever else might help you get a better grip on the foot piece and the rod, and yank it out.
I mean, why not? The oil won’t hurt the flute.
Good ideer! And if it’s keyed, maybe take the key off (use a cloth around the pliers, though so as not to chew up the pin)?
Guys, be careful with the linseed oil.
It’ll polymerize (which basically means that over time it turns to a kind of plastic-like substance), which is going to make a bad problem worse.
If you can get the cloth loose from the rod, try to work just the rod out. That will free the cloth.
Since you’ve already used linseed oil, you are fighting the clock. If you can’t gently work it out pretty soon, get yerself and your flute to your local instrument repair-person, who has a number of options that you don’t, including the ability to safely drill into the cleaning rod to release the pressure if needed.
I would advise against waiting until that oil starts to thicken.
Just my $.02. And good luck with that–please post again to let us know how it turns out!!!
–James
I’d think twisting and pulling would be the best bet - the twisting wraps the cloth tighter, compressing it, as well as helping with gradual movement of the joint off the wedge of cloth and rod - it will create a kind of screw-thread in the surface of the cloth. I’d have thought any kind of soaking would probably make the cloth swell, so best avoided. I agree with the suggestion of trying to push everything back from the open end with another rod. Remember to keep some tension on the cloth at the original insertion end as you do so in order not to get it bunching and counter-wedging!
BTW, is the rod one of those with an eye, and is it the eye that stuck? I hope you manage to get it out OK, and when you do, can I suggest never using an eyed rod again? I’ve never seen any point in them - they have this risk as you have discovered, and are also weak at the eye and prone to breaking anyway. Threading cloth through the eye is actually harder than folding a small corner of your cloth over the end of a plain rod (1/4" dowel) and wrapping the body of the cloth around the rod so that when you pull gently down on the loose part of the cloth it actually holds itself on while you push it into the bore with a twisting motion. If you want to pull the cloth right through, pull the rod out once you get hold of the cloth off the pushed through end, then pull the cloth through. For the head, start as before, push the cloth into the tube, withdraw the rod and push another lump or two of cloth into it with the rod, keep some pressure on the rod and twist the head - you will dry right up against the stopper perfectly and safely. This is easier (IMO) and certainly safer as it means the end of the rod is wrapped in cloth, reducing any slight risk (from a smooth rod of softer wood than your flute!) of scratching the bore. 1/4" dowel is also extremely unlikely to get stuck in the bore of any full-size flute. You do not need an eyed stick!
Good luck! And I echo the request to let us know how you get on.
I just left it and went to work (where I’m at now). When I realized just how stuck it was I almost immediately became overwhelmed with panic, anger and depression.
Thanks for all the good suggestions. I’ll get home tonight and re-evaluate. It is a keyless flute. The plastic rod has an eye. I wedged a screwdriver into the eye and tried to pull it out it like a wine bottle but the eye broke!!!
I’m considering using a Kleenex type tissue or a paper towel instead of cloth from now on to clean the flute. Is that bad for the inside of the flute?
Anyway, I’ll let you all know what happens and thanks again.
Boiled linseed oil, like you’d use on furniture, will polymerize over time. Days, not hours or minutes. Raw linseed oil, a.k.a. flaxseed oil, won’t polymerize. Neither will olive oil, almond oil, or other food-grade oils. Obviously, use one of those oils, not boiled linseed oil.
OTOH, don’t panic needlessly either. Before I knew there was a difference between raw and boiled linseed oil, I actually used the wrong kind on my flute. For over a year. And it’s an Olwell. Egads! But guess what? No ill effects. As I said, it doesn’t polymerize immediately, and until it does it will wipe off just like any other oil. So, if you see oil starting to harden on your flute, just wipe it off before it does.
Good luck, and we’ll be … erm, pulling for ya!
When I was taking lessons with John Skelton he regularly used a piece of paper towel to oil his flute, and I’ve taken up the habit. I don’t imagine it would be bad for drying the flute, although I’ve found that just putting the tiniest corner of one of those silk hankie swabs (available in a welter of fun tie-dyed colors from Woodwind & Brasswind!) through the eye of the stick and then “tenting” one layer of the fabric over it (not twisting it round the stick) works great on my Olwell. Best of all, the silk swab gets kind of oily over time and thus you sort of dry/redistribute any existing oil in one pass.
Guys, here’s a good page on oiling wooden instruments and the different oils available:
http://www.recorderhomepage.net/wood.html
Cold-pressed linseed oil will polymerize, it just takes longer than it does with boiled linseed oil. Boiled linseed oil contains chemicals added to make it polymerize faster, but which are toxic if ingested.
Bassoon players in particular know the dangers of using linseed oil incorrectly; there is a small additional hole beside the main tone hole under one of the key systems; over-enthusiastic oiling can cause the smaller hole to simply close.
Again, good luck with your flute, and I certainly hope everything comes out all right in the end.
–James
On further thought, before trying the oil-soak thing (which I still don’t think is a bad idea provided you use a non-polymerizing oil), perhaps you could get some of those rubber kitchen grip things, use one on the hand holding the flute and the other on the hand holding the rod, and give it a good yank. Assuming you didn’t push it so far in that it’s sticking out the other end, yank it out opposite of the way you pushed it in. If it was pushed through, then either try to push it the rest of the way through or pull it out, whichever looks like it would be most likely to work. Remember, you haven’t glued this in or anything of the like, so it shouldn’t be any harder than opening a jar of pickles. And like that, sometimes you just need a really good grip to get the job done.
I have gotten mine stuck before. Whenever that happens it’s way easier and I think it’s safer to push it through rather than try to pull it out. If you can pull on the end of the fabric that is sticking out the end, you might be able to make it easier to push through.
My baby is okay! I got home from work and read all the feedback here. Then, I calmly got a pair of pliers and forcefully pulled the rod through the flute. Viola!
Again, thanks for all the suggestions from the board.
Warmly,
Jeff
Phew! Well done!
Excellent!
I’m glad your flute is ok.
Be careful; now that you’ve fixed it yourself, you may discover that working on these things is every bit as addicting as playing them! 
–James
I wasn’t gonna say anything until I heard that you got the cleaning rod free and the flute was ok,
but…
I NEVER swab out the foot joint of my flute anymore!!!
It’s too small!!!
Just shake it out! Then dab the ends dry with the cloth around your small finger only.
How much water gets down there, anyway, and how harmful can it possibly be even so???
M
(yeah, I did it once, too, but not as badly…)
How about this for a compromise position?
The foot joint is short. Here’s how I dry mine: take the silk off of the cleaning stick, and just start feeding one corner of the silk through the footjoint, twisting as I go.
It doesn’t take long for the silk to appear at the other end, where I grab it and pull it through.
Ta-da! 
Foot joint comes out dry as a bone, and there’s no cleaning rod to get stuck.
You can oil it the same way if you like.
–James