Random curiosity, but I am looking for knowledge on who pioneered Delrin in Irish flute making? Any references, etc would be great.
Thanks!
First flutes in Delrin I ever heard about were from Desi Seery. Earliest record I actually have is in 1999. Frank Simpson was carrying his flutes in Los Angeles around that time. M&E had a different acetal resin (which I purchased in 2000 or 2001), and I believe Tony Dixon was using ABS or some other polymer in about 1999.
Michael Cronnolly was making polymer flutes in 1999 or earlier. I’ve don’t think the material was ever specified though it looked to me like possibly a high density polyethylene. Here’s a post from C&F dated 29 August 2001 (of course the links in it don’t work any more).
Mark
I am thinking of purchasing a polymer flute so I was surfing this morning and came to M&E Flutes by Michael Cronnolly
I looked at all the info etc. and am impressed with the site and what he says about polymer and flutes.
BUT!!! I found two precious gems on his site. 1) The flute tutor-- 13 tunes played full and half speed (but no names) and 2) Streaming flute music by Michael, 27 tracks that are gorgeous, with Michael playing his polymer flute, with other instruments including whistle.
It was recorded at Milwaukee in 1999.
Some tracks are:Lament for the Dead of the North; Season of Mists, An Bonnan Bui; Yellow Tinker; An Grianan/Horse with a Heart; Lament for Frankie, plus Innisheer.
This is really persuading me to save my money for Michael’s flute.
You will find the two links here:
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~mandeflutes/Contents.htm
Mark
Interesting info. Probably Tom Doorley had a big role to play in boosting its popularity too.
DANU’s album “THINK BEFORE YOU THINK” was issued in 2000.
Ignoring the exotic man-made materials and one-off instruments such as the glass crystal flutes… the original man-made/synthetic material was ebonite. This is a vulcanised rubber - with properties very similar to wood (weight, texture, hardness) but with the advantages of environmental stability (no expanding/contracting and cracking). It was quite popular in the 19th century and often regarded as a premium material (above Blackwood) for making instruments. Rockstro, I believe, gave ebonite his whole-hearted blessing.
I have a Boehm style flute made of Grenaditte from GUO (Taiwan). Grenaditte is black, textured, light weight, environmentally stable and has a lovely tone. I have no idea what the composition of Grenaditte is but it has metallic clink and a supreme lightness.
Some time ago I contacted the GUO company to ask them what went into their Grenaditte flutes. They refused to give any details. I passed on buying one, even though there are good comments about them
Michael
I had a guo flute which sounded great but I sold because I found I want open holes.
I have an ebonite F rudall carte, which has a lovely, warm sound which I (so far) associate
with ebonite. I would very much like to play an ebonite D flute. This may be the ‘right stuff’.
Geoffrey Ellis is making them, I know Michael C did. Anybody else?