Does anyone with experience have any tips or suggestions for removing keys and filling holes in an old flute? I’m trying to turn an 8 key flute into a 4 or 6 key.
Before anyone worries, it’s a beaten-up German flute that I bought for next to nothing specifically as a learning experience. If it was anything like a quality flute, I would absolutely be sending it to a professional.
Thanks!
The nice thing about using beeswax for filling holes on a wooden instrument is that it’s totally reversable … just in case you change your mind 
Does filling a tone hole, rather than capping it, affect intonation? If you start with a flute that plays in tune, then remove some of its internal volume by filling a tone hole, I would expect it might no longer play in tune throughout the scale.
This is just my naive guess; does anyone know more about the physics involved?
-Tom
This is just my naive guess; does anyone know more about the physics involved?
Yes
If you start with a flute that plays in tune, then remove some of its internal volume by filling a tone hole, I would expect it might no longer play in tune throughout the scale.
This is true. Off the top of my head I’m not sure how big an effect it would be - and your sentence does start with an if, and it is a ‘BIG’ if.
It is possible that the flute does not play in tune, and filling a hole may help!
If instead of filling a hole it was capped (as suggested by tsackett) i.e. the pad was stuck on, hopefully in a reversible manner, then the flute tuning should not change (for better or worse).
Even the the most basic tone hole calculators take into account the closed holes above the ‘sounding open hole’
Remember, in an 8-key flute, the bottom 2 keys are normally in the OPEN position. You could block the other unused key holes, and remove the bottom mechanisms. However, if the key heights were such that the holes were not normally fully vented, having them completely open (keys removed) might also have an effect.
Unless you have missing or badly broken keys to deal with, why remove any of them? Easier by far to do a full overhaul and make them all work properly. Then you can just ignore the ones you don’t want to use - or learn to use them! If you have intact keys but broken or missing springs which you don’t want to bother to replace, just repad and adjust the keys in question and then bind them shut.
But if you are really set on removing some of the keys and want a tidy finish, I think you are unlikely to seriously upset the intonation of the natural diatonic scale by blocking a couple of the keyed holes. Of course, you can always do a provisional block with wax or blutack and test against a tuner. If you then go ahead with blinding them off, including the counter-sunk key-bed and the holes for any pillars you remove (they just unscrew), I’d suggest filling the holes with something like Miliput epoxy putty, but leave it a little below flush and in due course top dress with wood-dust and superglue (if you can get some suitable blackwood dust). Of course, no such procedure is truly irreversible - one could always drill, pick and file out the block and clean up with solvents.
You might want to consider using small corks which you can purchase at a hardware store. These can be trimmed , in essence making them a ‘cap’, where the angle will serve as a wedge. Totally removable and can be adjusted for depth into the hole for tuning purposes. Might not look so pretty? You may be able to find rubber stoppers which will also work, and would be less obvious.
Arbo
There’s always scotch tape.
I’m not one hundrd percent sure as it was years ago, but when I met this fellow:
http://source.pipers.ie/Search/SearchResult.aspx?searchTerm=seamus+tansey&startRowIndex=0&pageSize=12&mediaId=4365
He showed me a Rudall with not only all the keys blocked but the blocks all filled or turned away.
He didnt need them. I was young and so proud to have a six keyed flute. Instant perspective.
I recently tried clear packing tape, which made my flute sound like a kazoo. It might be just the edge I need to be heard over the pipes at our local session.
Call it a dizi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizi_(musical_instrument), and you might get away with it.