Ok - I’ve tried searching, and I’m coming up with over 5000 matches, so I’m going to ask here. I have a bamboo flute (in almost-A ) which I rediscovered in my closet. It has a slight crack along the ‘grain’, for want of a better term, that isn’t leaking air. So, my question is: if I play this, will the bamboo expand enough to close the crack further? Should I oil it? Or should I try superglue or something similar? (I mention the last in the spirit of discovery - if people reply ‘yes’ to #3, I’m just going to let the flute do what it wants. Nothing is worth the hassle of ungluing myself from things). I’m not really all torn up by this - the flute was made from bamboo from Patrick Olwell, by my father (we visited to order a flute for me; Dad and Patrick talked for hours about machinery and stuff. I zoned out after a while ). And, as I’ve mentioned, it’s in almost-A. I can play it in A if I try hard. Otherwise, it’s just sharp of G-sharp. But it does play well!
My experience is that once moisture gets in the crack it will split further. (I think that’s three!) The crack needs to be sealed with glue, both to keep moisture out and to hold it together.
As long as I use only my pinkies to superglue, I should be able to continue playing flute and fiddle just fine. It’ll provide a good excuse for not hitting all those high Bs on the fiddle…
Not to worry. there is always the Celtic Kazoo.
I’m getting too silly. Must go to sleep.
I hope it isn’t as miserable in Columbia
as it is in St. Louis. Good luck with
the flute. Jim
I used 5 minute epoxy on my old bamboo flute and it worked great. I also wraped it with hemp twine. Use a degreaser first to make sure there is no oil in the crack. I use some stuff called OOPS. It is a paint remover but you can get it in a can like lighter fluid with a little spout and it works well. Use a hose clamp to draw the crack together if you want but the nice thing about epoxy is that it is a gap filler. In fact it likes gaps. I even sanded my old flute first and used the wood dust to mix with the epoxy. Easy. Heck its only a hunk of wood
) which I rediscovered in my closet. It has a slight crack along the ‘grain’, for want of a better term, that isn’t leaking air. So, my question is: if I play this, will the bamboo expand enough to close the crack further? Should I oil it? Or should I try superglue or something similar? (I mention the last in the spirit of discovery - if people reply ‘yes’ to #3, I’m just going to let the flute do what it wants. Nothing is worth the hassle of ungluing myself from things). I’m not really all torn up by this - the flute was made from bamboo from Patrick Olwell, by my father (we visited to order a flute for me; Dad and Patrick talked for hours about machinery and stuff. I zoned out after a while 
