…only since they invented the wheel…
I’ve looked it up now. I’m none the wiser. It seems to be both. I can’t find a particular preference for “handbasket” or “handcart” at any particular time or place. They’re just both used.
On a guess, I searched Hieronymus Bosch. I found this image:
https://jessicastraus.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/img_3941.jpg?w=768
So we know Hieronymus didn´t just have a thing for funnels. . not sure what´s going on with the creature suspended in the basket.
Bob
Well … it’s a basket … but is it a handbasket? I mean, I honestly don’t know the answer to that. Also, several of the sites I found the phrase, in either of its forms, suggested that it originated in the States. I must be missing something somewhere … or maybe it’s just one of those phrases that nobody now knows the origin of.
I´m not sure if this link will hold up. It´s not a hand cart, but rather a form of hay-wagon, a hay-wain.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/feb/11/hieronymus-bosch-review-a-heavenly-host-of-delights-on-the-road-to-hell#img-1
There´s little doubt they are on their way to Hell. . .it is after all Hieronymus Bosch.
Bob
I cannot seem to find a marvelous pen and ink drawing I have seen from Germany in the 1800´s showing a gigantic devil holding a handbasket full of unhappy sinners. . .
Bob
And of course who can forget ´Sixteen Come Next Sunday´ on ´The Well Below the Valley´ by Planxty. . the devil visits a girl in her chamber by way of a ladder and a creel. When her mother enters the chamber to interrupt this tryst, she stumbles into the creel and the devil rocks her all the way to hell in the creel.
Devils seem to be woven into the idea of baskets. 
Bob
Alas, I´ve been played false by my memory! The song was ´Pretty Peg´ and the group was ´The Bothy Band´. Oh, well, it´s just senile CRS disease! (Can´t Remember Stuff.)
Bob
I thought I couldn’t remember it on The Well Below the Valley. There’s enough gruesome stuff on there, mind, including the title track.
I always had the impression that the term “going to hell in a handbasket” meant things were going bad a little at a time. As time goes on it seems to have taken on the opposite meaning. Going to hell in a handcart, an expression I have never heard before, would be a much faster descent.
I’ve always thought ‘going to hell in a handbasket’ was mostly used as emphasis because of the alliteration. There are other phrases which seem to do the same thing, like “I don’t give a fiddler’s $%^$.”
Whether handbasket or handcart, to me the image of being carried means the situation is out of my hands; let’s say a water main burst and my basement’s getting flooded and my precious origami collection is ruined and I still have payments to make on it: the situation has gone to hell in a handbasket.
I have an alternative way I use it: going to hell in a handbasket is basically the same as going merrily with bells on, with a cherry on top.
For me, the expression has always been “going to hell in a handcart” and has conjured up images of the plague carts, which were wheeled round to collect the dead.
Similarly I had thought of it being along the lines of heading for a paupers grave, more a disposal than a funeral, with worse to come.
I find it a bit odd that we have had online forums such as Flute Tech and Flutemakers, but now a long thread on C&F.
Years ago, Landell told me that a person who becomes a flutemaker will also become a tool maker. The two are inseparable.
If a person wants to make flutes, and wants to test several rates of taper for the reamer, but has no reamer, I have an alternative. Instead of making a reamer, make a smooth, tapered mandrel. Can be easily made in aluminum. To use, get a decent piece of wood; Mexican Rosewood is much cheaper than blackwood. Drill thru with clearance (step-drilling is even better; see below). Allow about a millimeter of clearance all around (check now, not after waxing). Buy the large tubes of 5-minute epoxy at Harbor Freight. Apply a thin coat of beeswax to the mandrel, and use it as a core: daub the mix into the big opening, and displace the resin all the way up. Cure overnight at least. If you have a drying box with light bulbs, it will help release the core (use a hammer or a press). Proceed making this into a flute. If the taper is wrong, make another mandrel and repeat. A hard, wooden bore is better than the epoxy, but only marginally. The main principles of tuning and acoustics will reliably be proved-out by using the epoxy method. Once you’re happy with the design, you can commit to a reamer. To make the flute that’s an excellent flute, there will be plenty of work regarding the physical scale (tonehole lattice), shape of the toneholes, length of head, cork placement and treatment of the blowhole.
Step-drilling will save lots of time in shaping the bore, but more importantly, it will save wear on that reamer you’ve worked so hard to make. I use it even with the fancy production reamers for two reasons. 1., It saves wear on the expensive reamers. If a reamer does all the enlarging from the pilot bore, then the reamer will do more work and get dull at the small end; the big end will have very little work to do (it’s the last to enter the hole). If a reamer is dull, especially at the tip, it will chatter. 2., Long reamers, especially, tend to chatter if they start their cutting at the tip (in contrast, with steps, the reamer engages the work in several places). One or two steps will make a big difference. Steps can be cut by drilling in stages using different diameter drills. If you start with the largest twist bit, it will make a cone at the bottom of the holes that serves as a seat to guide the next smaller bit. Note: drilling from small to large may sound more familiar, but a bigger bit will not be concentric with a smaller hole. An alternative is an extended counterbore with a pilot which has been fluted for chip-ejection. For my production instruments, I had the toolmaker grind me a step-drill from a long twist bit. Back-taper offers a great advantage! If you chuck the work, the pilot hole needs to be co-axial (concentric) with the reamer; after drilling the pilot hole, turn the OD of the work between centers, at least where the chuck will hold the work during reaming. These measures will reduce chatter.
I see the setup for milling a spoon reamer in the milling machine. I suggest a cobalt ball mill and cutting fluid for long service life. If you tip the head of the mill (B-axis), the cut will be the same while the cutter will always have some surface speed at the bottom of the cut. I like drill rod, which can be cut easily with cobalt. I imagine you can get it heat treated (hardened) on subcontract. I think someone will take the job, even it they have to straighten it.
A fine organization is Gammons Hoaglund in Manchester, CT. They’re finishing my latest flute reamer to the tune of $745, and worth every penny. Cobalt steel can cost 10% more but last twice as long. Gammons gives expert design advice when you’re ready to commit. They can make a simple reamer for much less.
According to Rayleigh’s Rules, the diameter of the bore is what counts at each Critical Station (antinodes for flow and for pressure). The shape comes into play when we talk about the ratio of bores between these stations, especially regarding the higher notes.
I have an apprentice. The program is funded by the arts council (the Connecticut Historical Society). So far, so good.
I’m planning to organize a Flutemaking Retreat. The product would be a simple keyless flute, but students would get a taste of the process, and have some hand in the result. As it’s been said, beginners need some savvy about tools and woodworking.
Walt Sweet
A flutemakng retreat! Sounds fascinating. Open to anyone, or only experienced people?
This is brilliant! I’ve made lots of reamers and I’ve done cast-bore flutes, but I have not actually considered this method as a way to test a reamer profile before making the reamer! Soooo much easier to make an aluminum taper. Great tip.
The retreat would be open to all. Of course, I wouldn’t have time to teach the very basics of using tools.
I’m afraid Mr. Covid has a lot to say about this right now.
On the subject of step-drilling to save wear on your finish reamers, an alternate or complementary approach
is to use a “roughing reamer”. I bought a couple of Chinese reamers on eBay that are perfect for this.
One is a bassoon reamer and the other is an oboe reamer (the large one). They are straight taper reamers with
dimensions that are very close for a range of Irish flutes. You can ream an under-sized, straight taper, using these,
being sure to insert only as far as necessary, and then finish the final profile using your own reamers.
The great thing about these is that they are made of High Speed Steel (HHS), which is extremely hard wearing,
and are multi-bladed, so they can remove a lot of material before dulling. They are very inexpensive compared to
making your own reamers out of HSS. Between the two I have, the dimensions are such that I can rough out sections
for a whole range of flutes in keys between F and low Bb, simply by marking the appropriate insertion length.
They are still being sold on eBay. This is the bassoon reamer is here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-blade-straight-flute-for-wooden-pipe-instrument-Bassoon-dedicated-reamer/254459559875
And the relevant oboe reamer is here:
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/Straight-flute-5-blades-conical-degree-wooden-pipe-instrument-Oboe-reamer/254454018847
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Both have dimensions as stated and are well made. I’ve used both and they work very well.
I sent this to admin, and I don’t really expect a reply because I have a fair enough idea of what running a forum is - I’m asking for admin to take some responsibility for what I post for example:
"Hello.
I wanted to start a thread on flute construction resources, but I don’t know where is better to post it, or possibly a thread like that exists ?
The rules would be that only respectful publicly available information be linked to, or own work and experience. In other words no posting of details or dimensions of flutes of existing other makers for example. It is a large topic, but searching the web is even more time consuming, and so a list of links and own examples or technical experience I think would be a help. It isn’t like everyone is going to just go out and start making their own flutes, especially not wooden ones, in a way that would compete with existing makers (I don’t sell flutes I make for example), but it might encourage some to learn or be creative, or gain appreciation, and a few might take up flute making as a vocation ? Terry’s site is great for design ideas as well as offering a better view of actual construction , though you have to do some study to build up a full picture of @ dimensions for any flute, there is no reason for him to just publish free plans either - if someone is interested enough they will be bothered to do some work (else I think most are able to pay for the fine detail of plans). The thread though would be more aimed at technical ideas, construction process and so on, rather than actual design.
I don’t know, I don’t want to step on anyone’s own setup either by starting a thread like that, so if you think that might be then just say so and I will drop the idea.
Kind regards
Greenwood."
So seeing as with this thread it took everything at least part way to a construction resource page (is there one now?) and as flute makers are participating on this thread… has anyone anything to say against my starting that thread ? It would be low tech experience, bore drill types and results, drilling jigs, a method of making reamers that involves no steel work , suitable ways to shape toneholes, pole lathes (actually bungee for own) etc.
?