I’m wondering if anybody has experience or opinions related to flutes made of Pau Ferro (AKA Santos Rosewood). How do they compare with Blackwood and Mopane?
No experience with flutes, but I’ve made many whistles from pau ferro. In terms of working, it’s quite similar to mopane. It’s dense, tight-grained, and extremely oily. I stopped working with it because it was so quickly gumming up the files I use to make the blade, but the whistles I did finish were great.
Interesting. I’ve noticed and read that Mopane sounds a bit warmer than African Blackwood. I’m wondering how Pau Ferro compares in tone.
I’m of the general opinion that construction makes way more difference than the type of wood, as long as the wood is hard and dense, and that there’s more difference in sound among makers than there is among woods.
With a softer wood like maple or pear, a maker may not be able to achieve the details of the embouchure, but that isn’t the case with pau ferro.
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Emphatically agree 
I have yet to meet anyone who can really tell the difference between woods in a blind test, all other things being equal.
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