Now to the topic: I got this great blackwood keyed flute. It was made in Ireland and shipped to my place in the unspecified location in Eastern Europe. I played it for quite a while and it was delightful to play; then, I had to leave for a few months and forgot to take the flute with me. When I got back, the flute was still all right, except that, due to extremely dry air conditions, it dried out and shrunk - to the extent that some of the keys got stuck, and the rings are falling off, and it’s really difficult (and hazardous) to assemble. Still, the flute retained its sound and shape, did not warp etc.
Now my guess is that if the flute can lose humidity, it can also gain humidity and expand, which I would really like to achieve. Still, I’m far from the idea of merrily plunging it into the next water tank - preferring to ask the Chiff&Fipple pundits about the “sustainable” way of restoring the flute to its former glory.
How to rehumidize the flute and not break it?
Please give me your learned opinions, share your knowledge.
I will be grateful for any useful tip (preferably already proven in the field).
take a plastic box, like tupperware, put the flute inside but disassembled. then take a little wet sponge that you place in a smaller (open) box or pot, then put it inside the bigger box and close the big box hermetically. do this for a few days, but watch your flute. if the weather is very dry, you can also store your flute constantly in this box. but take care to prevent the flute from building up too much moisture.
For a few bucks, you can buy a combination cigar box humidifier that keeps the humidity at a certain level and lets you see what it is. It may take a while for the wood to come back, but it should. Just don’t plunge it into a rain barrel, and you should be okay. I don’t know about trying to play it until you get some of the moisture back into it. I had one that shrunk so a ring got loose. Less than a week in the humidifier set it right, but yours sounds a little worse, so give yourself time.
I think somebody mentioned that 60 percent humidity was a good level to shoot for.
There’s a difference between a humidifier and a hygrometer. The cheap little hygrometers are very inaccurate and can give you a false sense of security. I only trust the digital readout hygrometers that you can buy at Radioshack - or on EBay - for about $20.
You can make a cheap flute-case humidifier by cleaning out an old chap-stick tube, punching or drilling holes along the length, and putting in a wet piece of sponge or toweling paper. Just remember to wet it every other day or so. Playing the flute every day is a good idea, as is a light oiling once a week.
Here in Tucson:
A DRY AIRMASS IS CURRENTLY LOCATED OVER THE REGION…WITH DAYTIME RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES DROPPING TO THE SINGLE DIGITS.
MIN HUMIDITY…4-9 PCT.
For guitars they have humidifiers you can put in the sound hole when putting them in their case. The same thing or something like it (home-made version described above) would work for the flute. Keep in mind you don’t want to OVER humidify either.
