Thanks for the info. Dogwood turns beautifully, and John does make a great flute.
I have a kaval in mopane.
Here is a link to a video of it (well, and me too). I only had the flute for a day or two before I made this vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxzPv4AiwC8
Historically, the best wood available in Bulgaria was cornus mas (a type of dogwood). I do have some BG kavals made of this “standard” wood. But, my other kavals are in African Blackwood besides the one in Mopane.
I took the Mopane with me to Bulgaria last year and had a maker there make the one in the video.
Mopane looks more like cornus mas than does Blackwood which was one of the drivers for choosing the wood. Your playing makes WAY more difference than the wood or synthetic material from which the flute is made.
But, aesthetics are important.
…john
If there was a clearly discernible timbrel difference between the different flute material offerings, the debate would have ended long ago. But the mythos carries on partly due to no one bothering to put digital calipers and making critical measurements of their flutes (almost all of us own more than one). So long as the material is dense, but not overly heavy, machinable, cost effective, cosmetically appealing, non-porous then it’d probably be a good candidate for turning into a flute.
To the diehards who are so hung up on a particular wood, did you ever bother to ask which part of the tree you’re getting? I would think wood is not acoustically isotropic.
Hi John, I was meaning to ask you how your mopane flute turned out…
As far as material, my favorite is Cocus, followed by Blackwood, but I love the buttery goodness of Boxwood (EU Variety, please) Mopane is also a great wood. What I think is more impotent, is the shape of the bore, and where the little holes are drilled… 
Delrin is a great flute material, but makers that want to live long, may shy away from it… With the proper set up and a good dust mask, they may survive.
i keep thinking to make a nice 8 key Delrin R&R, then I would sell everything else, and never have to fix a crack again! 
BTW Dave Copley is now making delrin block mounted keys, I’m just saying… 
It isn’t just the dust from the synthetic materials that can be harmful. When PVC, for example, is cut, turned, or drilled, it gives off a gas that you don’t want to breathe. Whenever I work with PVC, except for lite filing and water sanding, I wear a chemical vapor mask to avoid breathing the gas. The completed PVC flute is stable and not harmful, since PVC pipe is universally used as household water pipe, approved for such use by the American Standards Testing Materials, for one. I can’t say the same for other polymer flutes that I have seen from Asian countries. The smell of these flutes tells the tale.
With regard to safety issues of working with flute materials, many of the common woods-of-choice, such as blackwood, cocus, and others must be worked with caution and the proper dust-collecting equipment, as Nature has seen to it that these woods contain insecticides to protect the trees. Even with these precautions, some workers still develop allergies to one or more of these woods with time and have difficulty continuing to work with them.
Nothing like good old Poly vinyl chloride to shorten your life real fast!
The trick with delrin ,is to not get it hot, and have a stong vacuum running. Yes a activated charcoal mask is a must…
Jon C.wrote:
What I think is more impotent, is the shape of the bore, and where the little holes are drilled…
Love those impotent bores (boors?)
Wonder if the little blue pills would help form a hard ‘D’ 
Bob
When a flute is played the wood doesn’t vibrate very much. The vibrating air column activates a certain vibration in the wood (proven by sticking a piezo tuner for guitars on the flute - it worked), but the overall influence of wood choice on the flute’s sound is superimposed by little variations in manufacture (a few 1/100 mm have a way bigger influence than one might think) and the player. What one is feeling on the fingertips when playing in full flight is the air column itself. What does matter though is the wood finish on the bore surface (rough/glossy), and my guess is that moisture-initiated raising of fibers in boxwood flutes causes what is said to be the distinctive boxwood tone. Just a guess though, I never cut a boxwood flute into half and checked.
Alltogether before no one can make two or three flutes from different materials but to the exact (!!!) same shape/sizes/specs I won’t be convinced that timber has a major influence on a flute’s sound/tone, as long as it is hard and dense (every tried a pine wood flute?).
I personally don’t mind that much what timber I have to make a flute of regarding quality of tone, however I prefer mopane over blackwood and rosewood due to its uncomplicated workability…Delrin stinks and working with it is terrible (for me), as the shavings tend to coil round the rotating piece on the lathe, and removing them every few seconds is a major mess. And it stinks. And you cannot turn it like wood (with cutting tools), which makes shaping of the work quite complicated if you’re used to hand-turning. And it stinks. And getting a nice finish is more work than on wood, and the dust and fumes are not cool. And it stinks.
Did I say that it stinks?
I asked Hammy about holly as I had a half baked romantic notion of one day getting something made from the huge holly tree in my Granny’s garden. He described it as “a disaster” for flute making. However, my cousin makes walking sticks. He says holly is just the best thing, along with blackthorn, for sticks.
I still hope to get some bodhran sticks from that holly tree…
m.d.
Odd… The holly flute (in Bb) that John Gallagher made plays great and seems fine. Maybe European holly is different?
I never smell a thing here - and I don’t wear a mask.
I do wear ear protectors for the dust extraction system though 
The dust extractor also pulls away the ribbon-like “chip” that comes off the delrin while turning so it doesn’t wrap itself around the workpiece.
I’d use the same extraction system even if I was only ever turning wood, as the flutewoods themselves are loaded with toxins anyway.
There’s also the problem of the very fine dust that is released when turning hardwoods - dust that can’t be seen and hangs in the air like smoke. That’s the most dangerous part of the wood dust, rather than the stuff you can see and sweep up. Then there’s the fumes from the wood resins…
So I’d use the same approach to dust extraction for wood too.
Garry
You’ve got to see it, Jon. It’s gorgeous, and what a sound !
I’ll bring it by sometime if you are interested.
…john
P.S. thank you, thank you, thank you !!!