Are any flutemakers publishing a blog? To answer my question I searched on blogger.com, and the only one I could find
was Hammy Hamilton’s ( http://hammy-flutemaker.blogspot.com/ )which is very recent ( but worth reading if you’re interested in the sort of topics that come up on this list.
Anybody know of any others?
James
Who has the time to blog when there are lots of flutes to be made always? Besides, some of us like to do a certain amount of our craft under the public radar!
Casey
Who has the time to blog when there are lots of flutes to be made always?
You seemed to find the time to send 796 posts, some of them of considerable length, and often about your flute making, to this list…
James
I think the word is ‘touché’ 
796 posts in 9 years is actually very little. And they are often very valuable.
Here’s an interesting use of the OP’s handle, Seamus139.
and at only 4 posts here in 9+ years, perhaps he’s making flutes too.
bassoons…
Yes but I am not talking about my daily life in the shop here day after day, which would possibly be the content of a blog. I’d have to administer it etc.
Chiff and Fipple isn’t a blog and is administered by others.
Casey
Poor souls I pity them. 
Someone suggested the idea of a blog to me some time back, but it bothered me that it was a monologue, while I prefer a conversation. And also, it relies on people remembering to “tune in”. But maybe Hammy could do both? Write the blog to keep a record of his thoughts on his website, but also put them out in the public arena (e.g. here!) to ensure visibility and promote discussion? Critics might say that’s commercial posting, but hey, we don’t have that many makers willing to share their thoughts. Let’s worry about it when we are overrun!
To illustrate my point, Hammy laments on the blog:
The big problem ( there’s always a problem, isn’t there?) with cast silver is that it’s really really soft. You might just about get away with short keys, but the long C and F are like sugar candy on a hot day, and will bend at the slightest provocation. The answer is work hardening, a process of hammering and filing which produces a key every bit as tough as a fabricated one, but at the expense of a lot of time, and the danger of making the shank of the key too small for the slot in the block.
In a conversation, I’d respond:
But you can have your cake (cast keys) and the desired degree of toughness too. Without resorting to hammering which is going to leave a surface that needs cleaning up. I have my casting company “age-harden” my keys. Essentially, after casting, the keys are kept at a high temperature (but well below melting) for a number of hours, speeding up the natural crystallisation of the metal that would normally take years to occur. Hence the expression “ageing” or “age-hardening”. It works a treat; indeed, it is better than hammering as the metal becomes uniformly hard, rather than a mix of hard and soft spots. It’s so effective it can be overdone, and you end up with keys far too hard and at risk of cracking if worked further! I know this because their first test pieces were rock hard - I didn’t dare bend them! I now ask them to “half-harden” them. This yields a key that is plenty hard enough to withstand rough handling, but still able to be straightened if bent, adjusted for the desired rise, etc.
Terry
Yes, but I understand that the pay is quite good.
If it’s a monologue, it’s the blogger’s own choice and preference. Virtually every blog format allows for interactive comments - sequential posts in exactly the same manner as the Chiffboard. So that’s really a non-issue.
With a website as large and informative as Terry’s website (the size of a small book), I maintain that he doesn’t need a blog. Besides, Chiff & Fipple is for blogging. Your ideas are apt to disseminated more widely in a public forum, such as C & F, than in a personal blog, it seems to me.
Hence a measure of treeshark’s pity, no doubt.
You should use appropriate smilies to indicate irony when you say such things, Doug; otherwise there’s a danger that people might actually believe you. Since I must now belabor the facts, for the record moderators here perform their functions on a voluntary basis. We receive no pay. 'Twas ever thus.
Thanks to James for let me discover the http://hammy-flutemaker.blogspot.com/
it’s extremely nice indeed!
Not strictly a blog and not strictly about flutes but I do post details about what I’m working on, new things I’m developing etc.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Instrument-Maker-Dominic-Allan/265809774297