Hi Everyone!
Someone the other day asked me about the ages of various flute makers and how long they had been at it, both playing and making. I am curious myself.
It seemed several of us got started in the late 70s/early 80s. Then a big gap. Then a new crop in the mid/late 90s. A few recently.
It would be interesting to graph this. The age demographics would also be interesting to see. Sort of chart the peaks and valleys of enthusiasm - then correlate this with world events, etc. Also see where the average age of flutemaking begins.
I’ll start. I just turned 50 in November - the beginning of my Geezerhood. I started making flutes in 1981, 25 years ago (I rounded this to 1980 on my website). I began playing on my great grandfather’s fife at age 6, then went to silver flute at age 10. Played my first wooden flute in 1980, an old German one. Saw my first Rudalls etc. about then as well.
Other makers care to add their statistics?
Casey Burns
Ah feck, I’m 46 this year… does that mean I’ve only got 4 more years before I’m officially a Geezer?? 
Please say it’s not true. It isn’t true. It can’t be tru…Garn! Bugger off you pesky kids!!
Gulp. I turned 58 on New Year’s Day this year. Took a few lessons on silver flute in about 1970, then largely turned my back on it for the whistle, until picking up the wooden flute seriously in 1974. Started collecting information from museums etc that year and started making in early 1975.
If casey will be a geezer at 50 then I’m a Geezosaurus.
At 62, they don’t even ask if I want the senior discount anymore; they just give it to me.
I suppose that I could be called a flutemaker, although I wouldn’t mention my name in the same sentence as Casey Burns and Terry McGee. For me flutemaking is more of a hobby than a profession. My market niche is entry-level, simple-system flutes made from pvc pipe, and I have been doing this for about ten years. During that time I have sold over one thousand flutes in the USA and to many countries around the world. I started selling one-piece pvc flutes at street fairs and as a street musician. I carried a bucket of flutes with me. My first flutes I hand painted with designs, and I sold them for $10. My current top-of-line flute is a 3-piece, 6-hole flute in polished pvc with lip plate and Tipple-Fajardo wedge.
In addition to making pvc simple-system flutes, I have also worked in a music store repairing pianos. For a short time I worked in a guitar building shop, and I also repaired violins for a folk music shop in Tucson. The classical guitar is the instrument that I have devoted the most practice time in my life. I also play the fiddle, mandolin, keyboard, harmonica, flute/whistle/recorder, djembe and frame drums, viola, cello, Tibetan singing bowls, kalimbas, Jew’s harp, and the Sony Walkman.
One of the most relaxing times of the day for me is the two hours each evening that I spend listening to classical music and finishing flutes at my kitchen table.