I’ll be leaving my job at the Von Huene Workshop Inc. at the end of the year (I’m moving), so they will be looking to hire someone in the near future. We make baroque flutes and recorders, and it’s a great place to learn the craft of instrument-making in this area. If this is something anyone is interested (the shop is located outside of Boston in Brookline, MA), please email me. Please do not contact the shop - I’ll give you more info about the potential position.
Since you are in the trade, you might be able to answer a question I have on instrument making. I cannot take you up on the job offer, but have been looking into books on instrument making for the novice. There seem to be a lot of books, but I don’t know which ones are worth the money. Do you have any recommendations where I should start?
I can’t recommend any specific books on instrument-making, because I don’t think there are many out there. There’s Theo Boehm’s book on flutes, which is an excellent book on his development of the modern flute, but I don’t know of anything else.
From my perspective (and many people might have a different take on this) it’s essential to develop excellent skills in both machining on the lathe and milling machine (many get by without the milling machine, but it makes things easier imho), and hand-turning on the wood lathe. For wood-turning, I highly recommend Richard Raffan’s book and companion video, put out by Taunton press. For machining, I’d see if there are any courses at local tech schools in basic machine shop. The machining angle is very important, since you have to make many of your own tools that you’ll need. You just can’t go down to the local toolshop and buy the required reamers and jigs and things you need to pursue this consuming craft.
Aaron, best of luck to ye in Denver. Contact Eric Olsen as soon as you can so as to get some reeds to work in that climate. Take plenty-o-hemp and thread as you’ll need it to wrap shrinking tenons, etc.