Who is making good F flutes these days?
I have one from Dave Copley that is very nice. I also like Jil Lehart’s F flute, especially the way it sounds in this clip. 
That is a great clip. I’ve really gotten to the point where tunes in F and Gmin are calling out to me.
Dave also makes a great C flute so A minor and G fingerings become G minor and F!
Lovely mellow tone too.
Tommy
Ian Corrigan (Deerness Pipes) has recently made a six key copy of my F Pratten original. It sounds wonderful. He does them in ABW and Mopane. The keys are actually all nickel silver which makes them very robust.
Ian is currently making a D Pratten copy too in six keys but is taking steps to do both the F & D in an eight key option soon.
There are a few tracks here of me playing one of Ian’s F Flutes;
https://soundcloud.com/holmesflute/tap-room-reels-on-corrigan-f-pratten-oct-2015-d-wood-guitar
https://app.box.com/s/giz3wy3r75peme0330hgb1wutbpqrmte
Ian is from Durham in the UK.
I’ll post some photographs when I find my camera.
H
Holmes, I remember that F Pratton of yours from an earlier post, here or thesession.org, it is indeed a great sounding instrument!
I’m enjoying these leads, but decent entry level flutes (i.e. inexpensive but not cheap) would be appreciated as well.
I was merely answering your original question. Just because H&Mc flutes are considered expensive doesn’t necessarily mean that Ian Corrigan’s are.
Best wishes
Thanks Holmes, I appreciate your reply. Is he making a keyless version as well? I could not find a website, though it sounds like he makes a great whistle too.
I am interested in discovering what top makers are offering f flutes, but I am also interested to see if there are any entry level models available as well. I can’t play my D flute well enough to justify starting a collection, but a second flute, playable, if not pro level, is tempting.
Every Ralph Sweet F I’ve ever played has been great. Ask about for a used one.
Copley slideless delrin come in very inexpensive
John Gallaghers is excellent as well but more expensive.
It may be worth asking about who would do a budget one
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Some times makers do these things but don’t really advertise them.
Casey Burns might do a slideless F cheap enough all wood for instance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frCr-H-qwtg
Doesn’t get much better than that - Carbony F flute. I played it earlier this year, pretty nice, and it inspired me to spend a lot of time playing my 6-key antique F flute. Both are affordable options, but it’s a bit hit or miss on the antique flutes sometimes.
https://carbony.com/product/carbony-two-piece-flute-in-f/
(I was surprised to see it was more than I thought, but still fairly cheap)
There’s a Copley F flute, with a G midsection, for sale on The Irish Flute Store.
There does seem to be a lot of current interest in flutes in keys other than D. We just shipped an E natural flute and the current batch in production are an E flat, an F, and a G.
In Galicia, flutes in F and G (and G, low pitch - i.e. F#) are called Requintas and are used in some Gaita bands such as “A Requinta de Xian”. These instruments are different than the larger bored English and American made versions by such makers as Hawkes, Firth et al. with a slightly narrower bore. The Requintas are based on Napoleonic era military flutes that were left behind after the Napoleonic wars. The Gaita bands adopted these around the beginning of the 20th century to modernize the sound. The flutes play the music an octave above the Gaitas.
The American/English patterned flutes with the larger bores support the first two octaves well. Above that they are a struggle. The narrower Requinta bores support 2nd and 3rd octave playing. Most of the music played on these ranges from the 5th of the second octave up to the 4th of the 3rd. Way up there.
Clarification (added later) - Requintas in F are played with Gaitas in Bb and Requintas in G are played with Gaitas in C. In the Gaita Repertoire the XXX XXX note is usually the tonic and in Requintas XXX XXX. Its as if one is playing in G on a D flute.
Here is a link to that band playing these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrTCd03XH1o
One of Galicia’s great pipers talking about my Requintas (actually this is one made on the American pattern but it works well for him inthe Requinta range):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGPzHOvRR3o
In 2013 we needed a number of the Key of F Requintas to play along with Bb Gaitas for a 3 day Requinta/Gaita workshop in Berkeley. Up until then I had only made the American patterned flute. I had found one of the narrower bored ones to use as my template fortunately. But a look around the workshop showed that I had nothing close reamer-wise. Then I remembered a reamer given to me by my friend Brian that was formerly owned and used as a bagpipe reamer by Robert Thomas. This reamer was a Belgian-made Naopleonic era Bayonet. I slid the middle joint of the old flute over the bayonet and the bore match was almost perfect. It makes sense that the Napoleonic-era flute makers would seek out a widely available shape of steel suited for their purposes. I had just 3 days to produce a number of flutes, including a 3 keyed flutes and these all worked great. I posted pictures of the 3 keyed one made with the bayonet in 2014, including the bayonet reamer used. I will post it here again.
The second flute from the left on the bottom along with the bayonet as reamer is the 3 keyed Requinta or Flute in F that I mention above.
Casey
Totally off topic! Casey, in the documentary did I see someone playing an Ivy leaf, or at least the Spanish equivalent?
Bob
Ivy Leaf? Not sure what you are referring to. Give me the time in the video.
I think an seanduine meant his comments about the Ivy Leaf were off topic, not your discussion about the Requintas…
Best wishes.
Steve
Thank you Steve. Yes, I’m off topic. . . .again. 
Casey I’ll re-watch the documentary and try to get a time frame on the videor ing the second (perhaps third) set of Requiantas de Xian one of the flute plays has his hands cupped and all I can see is a bit of green. Someone is playing an extremely high melodic line reminiscent of the sort of thing rural musicians in Ireland would do with and ivy leaf. Don’t think it was the other requinta player. There seems to be an ivy leaf player in Mexico City, and wonder if this is a tradition that originated in Galicia or . . .? The tradition in Ireland is akin to playing a blade of grass.
Bob
At about 16.43 on the documentary. Wazzat?
What is Pablo Carpintero playing?
Bob
edited to add Pablo Carpintero’s name.
edited again: a clear look at 16:54.
Some sort of leaf or blade of grass and a leaf. Will find out more…
M & E makes a polymer F flute:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ahpQK1nMI
I am not sure the one in the following clip is wood or polymer, but it is another M & F flute in F:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqXwBr-2zZ8