thanks Loren, looks like from our page here, maybe he’ll have 5 more customers if you get hold of him.
Lesl, I sent Roger an email late yesterday, will let you know if I hear back. IIRC, any time I wrote to him in the past, he responded relatively quickly, along the lines of 1-2 business days.
How long ago did you attempt to contact him? I was thinking perhaps he might be away on a trip/vacation, however if it’s been 2 weeks or more since you attempted contact, that probably doesn’t bode well.
Hmm. I wrote him on 23 Apr, and again on 28 Apr.
I think it was yesterday I messaged a different place via their contact page (oops don’t recall where) and asked about dimensions. I think it’s a place in California. Also I looked at Carolyn Nussbaum’s site, and there I saw a full length take-down flag with a top the size of the stopper, so it would never fit in our footjoints.. There was some other item by I think Altieri, sold in 2 separate pieces, but could not really tell what it is..
I found the flute flags.. a response from this website
In email they told me “Our flags are Roger Holman’s design. We worked with him for many years.”
Gosh it is pricey but I held off for what .. since like 2006.. They also gave me the specs. “The 28" flute flag has a diameter of .385" “
Did they mention anything about Roger’s status, if he’s still active? Are they making the flags now?
Regarding the flags they carry: That diameter of Rod will be too large to pass through the foot joint of most conical bore flutes because many have a bottom bore hole of approx .40”
So, once you add the flag material, it’s a complete no go if your desire is to be able to swab out the entire flute.
When I first spoke with Roger about 20 years ago, he explained this to me and said a much thinner rod was needed for the conical bore flute flags in order to solve this problem. You’ll see on his website that it is stated the conical bore flute flags are made from (a much thinner) carbon fiber rod stock, like that used on the piccolo flags, rather than the larger plastic rods used for the flute flags.
So in essence, the conical bore flute flag is a very long 2 piece piccolo flag rod, combined with a more or less “normal” sized flute microfiber swab attached.
Unfortunately, I don’t think there is any place to buy the conical bore flute flags other than directly from Roger.
It’s only been 1 business week since you first emailed him and I can think of a number of things that might keep someone from being able to respond for a week or two. Hopefully Roger is still actively making and just otherwise occupied at the moment. We may still hear from him yet.
I’ll be happy enough if taking off the foot will do the trick… One of mine will need that, but maybe not my other which is 1/2”. I did ask if they have information about Roger but haven’t heard back yet. It would be nice if he’s just on holiday.
Depending on your flute, the bottom tenon on the section that fits into the foot joint socket may also be problematic as this part of the bore can also be relatively narrow. The way the flute flag fits into a conical bore flute’s decreasing diameter is via the material curving over and eventually wrapping around the rod it is mounted on. So you need to add the thickness of the material times 2, plus the diameter of the rod, plus a little extra to assure there is no significant pressure on the tenons during pass through because tenons are highly susceptible to cracking when outward force is applied from the inside.
If you just want to be able to swab out the headjoint and barrel, you should be fine with the standard flute flag. If you have a 2 piece R&R style body section, the standard flag may also safely pass through the left hand section, but is unlikely to be safe going through the right hand section. For one piece body sections, I think you’re out of luck.
I don’t know what sort of flute you currently play, and I suppose there could be a few outlier flutes where the standard flag could work, maybe a flute designed with a very short foot where the end of the bore is wider, possibly a Healy? But in general, I think the standard flute flags will only safely work on the head, barrel, and possibly left hand section of a conical bore flute.
I could be wrong, I’ve only used the conical bore flags and I’m going off the rod dimensions they provided you, plus my experience with the rod and flag material on the ones I owned. If you end up trying one I’ll be interested to hear how it turns out. I moved a while back and my own flute flags got misplaced in the process, so I’m looking for replacements.
Hi Loren…
Flute flag just arrived. Oh do I ever wish I’d written to you before ordering.. it doesn’t fit, as you know.. I have a Pratten-style Olwell and a John Gallagher Rudall-style ‘large holes’ 6 key. The flute flag doesn’t fit either with the footjoints taken off.
I’ve got plenty of swabs if I want to take the flute apart, which I ordinarily do (“oh are you leaving?” “no, just clearing out the flute”…) so don’t need a flute flag for that. It does look nice though..
I’ll email off to the sellers and hopefully do a return.
Hi Lesl,
Ugh, sorry to hear that flag isn’t going to work out. Hopefully they’ll allow a return.
It will be a shame if the conical bore version is not available again at some point in the future….
Hi Lesl and others —
My approach to this is to use the upper portion of the flute flag to swab the initial, um, fluid from the head joint and then wrap the cloth part of a clarinet swab around the flute flag and do the finishing touches in the head joint.
Then I drop the weighted end of the clarinet swab down the bore of the flute and pull the cloth through. Do this a couple of times and all those droplets are gone.
And it takes less time to do that it did for me to type all of this out.
Best wishes.
Steve