I’m a novice Irish flute player with a beloved two-piece Sweet D flute in maple. A wet player (I know this from my years playing tin whistles), I generate so much moisture when I play that the wood swells and I can’t detach the two pieces to air 'em out afterward.
What I’m doing now is to let the flute sit for a day or so until I can easily disassemble it. I then let it dry out for a day or so before playing it again.
My questions:
Anyone else have an experience similar to mine?
Is my approach sensible or is there a smarter way to approach this?
Should I give up on wood and try polymer flutes instead?
Eager to hear your thoughts, opinions, and always-wise counsel.
I think I am qualified to comment, since (a) I am a novice (< 2 years) and (b) I have a Sweet keyless in Purpleheart.
First - “I am a wet player”. I know what you mean with whistles, but I am not sure this applies to flute. The moisture that condenses inside the flute is not “spit”, but condensate from the moist air inside the flute. The Venturi effect (I think?) reduces the temperature near a high velocity stream, and causes moisture to condense out of the air. This is normal.
I too have this problem, not quite to the extent that I can’t disassmble the flute, but almost. It seems that the thread on the tenon soaks up a lot of moisture, which keeps the wood wet, so it swells. Several things you can do:
Oil the flute regularly (make sure it is properly dry first)
Ocasionally lubricate the tenon thread. I use vaseline, which keeps out moisture as well as ensuring an airtight joint.
Shake excess moisture out from time to time
If playing for extended periods, ocasionally take the flute apart and mop up excess moisture from around the tenon (both halves) with a tissue or absorbent cloth
Don’t put the flute straight into its pouch when you finish playing - leave it in the open air to dry out for a while first.
I don’t think you should necessarily give up wood. I have spoken with pro players and excellent amateurs who swear by their polymer flutes, but I still prefer the feel of wood, if not the sound. I guess if your flute ends up cracking, you might need to reconsider!
Your strategy is fine, IMO. I’ve had similar experiences
with Sweet maple flutes, which tends to swell
with moisture. No need to shift to non-wood or
go to further measures to protect it.
you might need to store the flute in rel. humidity of 50-60% when not playing. infrequent playing of a flute can cause some joint swelling as well. so the best solution i have found is frequent playing and i storage in rh of 50-60%.
I’d suggest calling Ralph before oiling it – his flutes are treated with tung oil, and if yours needs to be resealed, oiling with almond oil or something might just mess it up.
You can also try taking off some thread from the tenon. I have a couple of boxwood flutes that were made with loose tenons specifically because box swells when it’s played. As rama pointed out, this is less of a problem if the flute is played frequently and humidified between playings.
I’ve had two maple sweet flutes, really liked them.
Both tended to swell at the tenon when played.
This more so than other woods on Sweet flutes,
in my experience. None was as dramatic
as the story here, but sometimes taking the
flute apart wasn’t a good idea.
Personally I don’t see this as a problem,
because nothing ever cracked.
Also I sure wouldn’t generalize from what these
flutes do to wooden flutes in general. No solid
reason to think the same problem is going to
arise with blackwood or rosewood or non-Sweets.
Doesn’t in my case.
The tenon on the Sweet is wrapped, not in thread,
but in…how does one describe it? A solid band
of apparent cloth that wears like iron. There
seems to be no way to strip any of it off
as one would unwind some thread from a
threaded tenon.
Yes, Sweet flutes are soaked (and soaked)
in tung oil, the intention being that you don’t have to oil them much.
If at all.
If I may speak freely, I see these as good, inexpensive,
very rough and ready instruments. I’ve played the hell
out of several, made of different materials and, frankly,
never have taken much care of any. I don’t even
dry them (I blush to confess). I’ve never had one
break.
Hmm – I’ve had three Sweets of varying vintages, all thread wrapped.
I’m with you, Jim, I like Sweets. I currently have a one-key rosewood that I play often. It’ll never replace an Olwell, but it’s incredibly light, which is good for travelling or when I’m tired, plus since it is (somewhat) sealed, it’s a good flute to leave assembled to toot on for five minutes here and there.
As expected, I’ve learned a ton from the replies so far and truly thank everyone who has weighed in.
To clarify a few points:
I doubt infrequent playing is contributing, as I play this bugger nearly every day (every other day at most).
I live in Seattle, where the air is pretty most year round, so I don’t think low humidity is a factor.
I’ve been oiling my flute from time to time but didn’t realize that Sweets may not need oiling (at least, not nearly as much as other flutes).
I concur that the material around the tenon doesn’t appear to be normal string that can be easily unwound. But it’s pretty thin, so even if I could unwind it, I’m not sure that would make much of a difference.
What I plan to do:
Not worry (I was heartened to hear others have encountered similar situations with these type of flutes).
Consider adding a bit of light lubricant to the tenon thread.
Drop Ralph a line if this continues to bug me.
And I fully agree with those saying kind things about these flutes. I’m absolutely delighted with my Sweet and, if it ever were to crack, I’d likely go out and replace it with another Sweet (though I live close enough to Casey Burns that I’d probably better consider one of his, too).
The Noy has rings on the tenons, so they’re pretty much the same size all the time.
Long as I keep the Olwell well-played and/or humidified, the tenons aren’t loose when first assembled. I was a little taken aback, though, how loosely it fit when I got it, but Patrick said he does all his box that way, and it seems to be working well.
Meanwhile, IRONICALLY … … I just wrote Patrick’s shop and said “Hey! Why these giant swollen tenons on my boxwood flute?!”
I don’t know about maple, but their suggestions for my boxwood were to 1) Keep the humidity more like 50 - 55% (instead of 60% like the blackwood seems to prefer), and 2) If need be, have my local woodwind repairer slightly sand the tenons so that when they DO swell, I can still get the flute apart before like, the next gig. (Then of course, I use Teflon tape while they’re loose and rattly).
I’m also pondering changing the cork lapping over to thread wrapping because my other boxwood flute seems to do very well with the thread, and I just plain like thread better – even though Mr. Olwell prefers cork – but haven’t taken the plunge yet because, well, Mr. Olwell prefers cork.
Oiling helps – don’t forget to oil the ends of your tenons too! – and cork greasing the tenons every time you put the flute together is useful as well, but if your flute’s like mine it might just be the nature of the beast until it gets old and/or waterlogged enough to react less strongly.
Perhaps in the interim, you can build yourself a little flute stand so it can stand on end and drain properly instead of having residual moisture pool inside. That can be damaging. I just took a 2"-thick square of pine, drilled a couple of holes in it for dowel rods to fit inside the bores, sanded everything nice and smooth, and bobsyer.
Another possibility is to seal the endgrains of the wood on the end of the tennon, to prevent the invasion of moisture. You could clean the end with alcohal or acetone, then apply a thin film of superglue.
Warning if you do this, DO NOT ASSEMBLE YOUR FLUTE UNTILL YOU ARE CERTAIN THE GLUE IS DRY… or You’ll Be Sorry!
… I just wrote Patrick’s shop and said “Hey! Why these giant swollen tenons on my boxwood flute?!”
