How much wood have I used making flutes for 30 years?

Irish Flute
1

A friend was curious how many flutes I have made. I have ready data for the last 4 years and counted about 550. Next year is my 30th year doing this. At a rate of about 100 flutes a year, that will be about 3000 flutes by July. Measured end to end, that’s about 2 kilometers of flutes! That is how long of hole I have bored and reamed.

This sounds like a whole forest of trees has been leveled to make these but its actually quite modest. 3000 flutes X 680mm (approximate length of wood used per flute) X 40mm X 40mm (width of wood used) = 3.264 billion cubic millimeters of wood - or 3.264 cubic meters (115 cubic feet) of wood. About the equivalent volume of one tree trunk 16" in diameter and 100’ tall. There are many Douglas Fir and Cedar trees here that are second growth that probably have more wood volume. Weight-wise, with blackwood at 75 pounds per cubic foot, I will have used about 8625 pounds of wood. I used a lot more than that building my house!

Casey

2

There’s some heavy Mathematics going on here Casey ..
It must be a great feeling to have…knowing that you’ve made a lot of people happy …and making Musical Instruments for 30 years …well done … :thumbsup: ..
While you’ve got the calculator out… how many tunes do you reckon have been played on those 3,000 Flutes in those 30 years :astonished: :astonished: :astonished: .
regards from OZ… weedie…

3

Congratulations on making that many flutes, Casey. To change the subject altogether, I have retirement savings in an IRA account and a retirement annuity from Hartford Templeton Chase, both diversified but heavy in equities. I’m feeling vulnerable about all of this money in equities, seeing what the robber barons on Wall Street have done in the past. What would you recommend as a prudent course of action, that is, from one opera lover to another?

4

Doug, buy silver and gold on the dips with some of it to preserve value. Physical stuff, not ETFs. Read more at financialsense.com and safehaven.com. Jim Willie and Gonzalo Lira are two good authors there. The economic disaster in progress isn’t helping the flute business any but we’ll manage. The Recession of the late 70s early 80s was pretty bad - that is when I got started doing this. I’ve done this through all the recessions since, only taking a break during the 1st Bush recession to build my house.

Weedie, one can only imagine Probably a good part of the traditional repertoire and then some. And some tunes thousands of times. Ad nauseum…

Casey

5

I checked here: http://www.benjerry.com/flavors/our-flavors/# , but I couldn’t find ‘Casey’s Tutti Flutey’. :confused:

6

I thought a flute maker would recommend G notes as THE investment. Just sayin.

7

I have always found your comments polite and interesting. I know, no creative editing, read the OP for context.

PS Have you thought of platinum plating your flutes? It seems like concert players like that kind of a thing.

Okay, I have just completed a mental exercise and cannot figure out if plating would seal the wood or flake off with environmental changes.

8

Some of the comments to my posting are kind of surreal - its obvious people are thinking about the staggering unemployment numbers, economic collapse, and how they’ll bail out the rich and make the rest of us pay for it - than thinking about flutes.

Platinum plating? Never heard of that in the wooden flute world. How would one “plate” wood without immersing it in deadly chemicals (usually most plating involved solutions in cyanide)? At $1733 an ounce this metal is way beyond my budget. I’ll take my platinum in catalytic converters. Otherwise its an ugly metal.

I was kind of interested in hearing about other flute makers’ total production in my terms. It would be interesting to know how many theoretical trees the current generation of flute makers has used up.

I saw a tree today, some sort of pretty African mahogany resembling Honduras that Edensaw Lumber in Port Townsend sells. It was a large log 3’ in diameter and about 30’ long, slabbed into 2" thick boards, and kiln dried, ready to use. Its popular among the boat builders in the area. It was great to see something in one place close in size resembling my theoretical flute production tree.

There is a nice stand of Honduran Mahogany trees in a spot in the Everglades. These things get huge.

9

Hey Casey;

I’m not a flute maker…yet…kinda considering it, on a small scale, when I get my mandolin finished…but I am a professional cabinetmaker/woodworker with 25-27 years in, currently teaching a two-year diploma college program, and the question of ‘how much wood have you used’ is interesting to me. Instruments like flutes and fiddles to me are the ultimate value-added product; tiny amounts of raw material multiplied by the makers skill into an instrument that is worth considerable sums and gives pleasure to many…can be handed down through the generations…that is a singular thing. A local lutheir tells me all of his material comes out of firewood piles, and he sells fiddles around the world and has a long waitlist.

I sometimes wonder what it would look like if I could see all the wood that has come under my hands; it would be a much bigger pile than your 3 cubic metres; I’m not sure where to start estimating it, but think it is really worth thinking about. A friend in industry has bought well over 2 million board feet of pine in his career before he switched into advising; I don’t have a picture in my head of what that looks like. I do believe it is vital that we do what we can to make sure that wood is there in the future.

So although I cannot submit an apple to compare to your apple regarding wood usage…I am admiring of your ablity to turn a very small amount of wood into a large number of beautiful instruments used to create music in this old world.

Adrian

10

I’ve decided to learn how to make shoes. I wonder how many cows I’m going to go through before I make a decent pair? How many flutes did it take before you made a really good one?

11

I know this is a tiny bit off-topic, but Satriani plays a chrome-plated guitar. I don’t remember whether it’s wood or something else, but the body is chrome plated. The plating keeps flaking off, though. Wood, or whatever it is, is not really something you can plate and have it last. He’s got it patched up and has clear packing tape over the worst areas.

Questions for Casey: I think I read somewhere that you couldn’t work with certain woods because of allergies or something (and if I’m wrong about that let me know)…so if that’s true, have you ventured any further to find new woods you can work with, or do you plan on keeping with the same few you know you are able to use indefinitely? If you really are limited in what you can work with, are there any woods you can’t use which you wish you could? And have you ever tried laminates or polymers, and if so what were the results like? Thanks.

12

We’ll never know the true quantity of wood that was actually consumed to make our flutes. The blanks used for instruments would be top grade and likely pre-cut into blocks by the time it reaches the maker. Not everything he gets is worthy of turning and some of the good pieces don’t always turn out well. There’s scrap at every step.

Although hardly an ideal comparison, a finished violin bow weighs only 60g but requires 1000g of wood to start. Guess what happens to the other 940g of that top grade quarter sawn wood? Somebody get the broom. Brazilwood is on the verge if extinction (http://tinyurl.com/247wnuh). The same is true of gold, diamonds, oil from tar sands, even the apples we buy at the supermarket (how much ends up in the garbage after all the good ones are picked over?).

When you factor in the energy to harvest, transport, store, process dry… you’ll quickly arrive at an “inconvenient truth”.

13

Should I shoot myself now, or is lead too scarce?





Rob

14

I would be worried more about the health risk lead poses.

15

Of course there is some waste product in the production of wood for all uses. I have chopped up enough logs myself. However, with some species such as Boxwood, I save all of the scraps (as well as pieces of blackwood etc. that turn out to have flaws) and give these away to luthiers and woodworkers who render these into other things. Much of the blackwood I use (especially for the Folk Flutes) is itself wood that is rejected by the clarinet makers who get first crack at it. If they find a flaw in a piece, such as a spot of sapwood on the edge, they reject it. This is actually superb wood sometimes - but sometimes you don’t know until it has been turned into a flute body part.

M31 wrote “The blanks used for instruments would be top grade and likely pre-cut into blocks by the time it reaches the maker.” - if only this were true. Its hard to find top grade blackwood anymore. Boxwood I buy in log form, and cut up on my bandsaw.

I simply wanted to calculate a theoretical volume of wood and report it here. I didn’t really want to be made to feel bad about it from M31’s “inconvenient truths” - which may apply to other things like Pernambuco which has been overharvested. I hardly think this is the case and M31 is missing the point of my calculation. I just wanted to imagine a volume of wood rendered into flutes. My flute making is hardly causing the extinction of any species.

From what I have seen, I’d say that the actual ratio between the amount of wood cut to the amount of wood used is about 2:1. So maybe 2 theoretical trees. Still not a whole rain forest (also, the species I use aren’t rainforest species!).

Currently I am comfortable with my wood choices. It was easy early on to rule out most of the rosewoods and ebonies due to reactions - contact dermatitis for rosewood and sneezing violently from ebony. I avoid cocus due to the dermatitis risk. Blackwood is one I am currently riding the fence on even though it seems to be the most popular. Occasionally I get dermatitis from it, and sneezing reactions if I am careless with the dust. At some point I may decide not to use it anymore. Mopane and boxwood are still benign to me.

There are other woods possible for flute making - but the difficulty then is getting these in the forms and quantities I need reliably and repeatedly, as well as convincing my clientele that these are worthy woods to try. Some newly available species such as something someone in Australia is marketing as “Pacific Blackwood” require importing, which is yet another hurdle I wish to avoid. I wish I could easily get Cooktown Ironwood. I have a piece Mark Hoza sent to me years ago that I still have yet to make a flute from - but its finally ready. Its a lovely wood. But I have yet to find a supplier of it here in the States.

Most players want to stick to what is known and well used like blackwood and so that is what they order from me. I am sure there are other species out there that are suitable for flutes but again, its a matter of finding a supplier, and getting wood relatively ready to use. My supply streams and inventories for boxwood, mopane and blackwood are pretty secure and stable. I could go out and get my own wood (here are a few native species such as Mountain Mahogany and Oregon Crabapple) but that would involve permitting from government agencies, locating suitable trees, chain saws, a sawmill to process the wood into blanks, time away from the lathe and home and family, some sort of vehicle for hauling, and then 5-15 years of curing until I could use this stuff. Its not an economically wise choice to log my own flute making woods when others do this so better than I could. I might have done this when I was younger and more limber. Currently my wood gathering involves a few hours driving time to a favorite wood supplier in Portland to hand select pieces (always something I enjoy doing) or buying it online from a more distant supplier. Some of the wood I get is still wet - but is usually ready within a year or two’s time.

The composite woods are interesting. But I have no idea on how these would stand up to the wet/dry cycle of flute playing. Plus these engineered woods are relatively expensive - and as expensive as top grade blackwood which I would rather use. Also, many of them are made from birch veneers and birch is yet another wood that I do not deal well with dust-wise. Phenolic-formadehyde resins are what hold these together, yet another thing I wish to avoid. In the turning process especially reaming, considerable heat is generated which could release the formaldehyde, which is a major sensitizer and potential carcinogen. Its not something one wants to stick one’s lips up to besides. I also don’t really want to be turning plywood. Similarly turning plastics or making flutes with carbon fiber and resins poses other chemical risks I wish to avoid. Besides, I simply hate turning or working with plastics.

So the woods I currently use are a comfortable fit. And I don’t use that much, really.

Casey

16

Have makers experimented with autoclaved/heat treated wood? It would probably be hard to find people that deal in specialty woods, and might not be worth the effort in the long run, But I was just curious.

17

I regularly heat treat boxwood by microwaving, using a technique pioneered by my friend Rod Cameron. Basically its like pre-shrinking fabric. When the flute is partially turned, the end grain is sealed. Then the wood is heated up in the microwave (I use 5 minutes at defrost). Some plunk it in water afterwards but I haven’t found this to be necessary.

I’ve used some steam dried woods such as pear and other fruitwoods.

18

Casey,
Thanks for answering. And I wouldn’t worry at all about the amount of wood you use. If you’ve spent all these years using so little to produce so much, then your own impact is minute. I would imagine it is the same for other makers who produce the same amount on similar schedules. Cutting down one tree does not deplete a forest.

Two more questions, if I may:

  1. Is the microwaving technique the heat treating you wrote about to keep wood from warping?
  2. On your flute care page, you mention using beeswax and vaseline melted together as an alternative for tenon thread wax…is there a specific ratio or weight of each you would recommend for the mixture?

Thank you.

PS- Please don’t stop using Blackwood for a while. I’m hoping to order a Folk Flute in it sometime in the coming months. :smiley:

19

Yes, its to pre-warp the wood before the final dimensions are machined.

These days I recommend going to the hardware store and getting a wax “toilet ring” used for installing toilets. Its widely available and just the perfect consistency for thread wrapping.

Casey

20

Now I never said anything about one maker extinguishing a species. In case anyone missed my point, rarely are all impacts considered in any form of consumption. The question was asked, How much wood? And then answered, one (or two) tree trunk/tree(s). I’m asking, Really? By volume maybe, but not by number.