I recently commented that metal trapped inside wood (eg in a lined head, but in other situations too) was a recipe for disaster - sooner or later the wood will crack when a long spell of dry weather makes the wood shrink and the metal will not permit it. I hope most people can see the logic of that. The evidence is clear and the science unarguable.
Some people though choose not to believe it, some even going so far as to suggest I’m just running the argument to push my unlined heads. Fine fine, I thought, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. See if I care if your head cracks, I conclude callously! But then you get a day like today:
a French flute on my desk with cracks through head and barrel, the rest of the body perfect except for the foot socket - two cracks because the socket is lined with metal. A common failure pattern.
a piccolo with a crack through the barrel, not the head (yet!) and the body perfect
Greg’s post about the Peloubet with cracks in head and barrel
another post about a crack in a recently made barrel.
As I said above - the evidence is everywhere, so why is there a question? I can understand that, if you really like the flute you are playing, whether old or recent, loyalty demands that you should defend its maker. But surely common sense should override irrational loyalty, or am I asking too much?
Can we nail this one forever? Conclude and affirm that metal inside wood is bad practice, and challenge makers everywhere to come up with designs that don’t feature metal trapped in wood?
Or convince me the pile of flutes I have here for repairs are just bad luck!
No, not when you put it like that. The evidence would seem to indicate rather more that exposing a lined flute to a long spell of relative humidity greatly reduced from its ‘normal’ environment will make the wood shrink. No-one’s yet established how ‘long’ or how ‘great’ the reduction has to be. You’ll recall some of the data indicated a period of years. (Clearly, a flute made from wood grown and seasoned in a dry environment isn’t going to suffer at all from a long spell of dry weather, how could it?).
Likewise, “sooner or later the wood will crack” is hardly clear or scientific now, is it? It’s a “maybe” at best.
I guess people might be tempted to think that, especially when you write a paragraph like this:
Can you not see how such a paragraph might be construed as ‘advertising’ your own designs by ‘smearing’ other makers? Other makers in whom flute players have “irrational loyalty” and ‘no common sense’?
Those words certainly could be interpreted as outrageous, a bit like saying “I understand why you might feel a sense of totally misplaced and irrational loyalty to Brand X. But you know, Brand X is a ticking time-bomb, it’s going to self-destruct sooner or later. And really, you know the common sense thing to do, the rational thing to do, is to ditch Brand X…”
I doubt it can be nailed forever, Terry. Too many folks have too many lined flutes which haven’t blown up after “a long spell of dry weather.” Some of those flutes are over a century old too.
If all lined flutes definitely, absolutely, cracked 10 years (or some other fixed time) after manufacture then yes, it would be nailed forever. But there are too many variables, so there’s no stated definitive “mean time between failures” to go on. Just a vague “sooner or later” and “maybe.”
Maybe I’ll be long dead before my lined Grinter cracks, in which case I don’t care. I’m certainly not going to ditch the Grinter and buy ‘Brand Y’ because it might crack ‘sooner or later.’ (If someone gave me definitive proof, however, that it will crack on February 18th 2006, then you might see it on eBay…).
I don’t think we as players or collectors can “challenge makers everywhere to come up with designs that don’t feature metal trapped in wood?” either. Makers make what they will, and it’s for us to decide what we’ll buy from the products available. Now, if makers did experiment, and did come up with metal-less designs in their wooden flutes, then we’d have other choices in the market.
We already have choices. Lined or unlined, wood or metal or synthetic bodies and headjoints… far more choice than our forebears did, in fact.
We can ask a maker to make us a flute that, say, has delrin as a liner instead of brass or silver. The maker might shrug, and make it, and charge accordingly, but with no guarantee that the end product will be as good as, or superior to, his ‘standard’ metal-lined flutes. But I don’t think I have the right to demand that all makers go and spend years doing research and development which might not work (and which, in a hundred years from now, might be the subject of debate when or if those flutes start cracking).
I think Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe at any speed” shows that a cultural change can be effected by consumer education. Makers will make what will sell. There’s not much point making what won’t sell.
McDonald’s might not have enjoyed the movie on upsizing, but they obviously watched it! We don’t have to live in the past.
True. And it’s also true I know nothing of making flutes, save what I’ve read on excellent sites like yours, Terry.
I’d be interested to know what kind of investment in time it would ‘cost’ makers to experiment with alternatives to metal lining, for those who currently use it in the flutes that they sell very well.
I imagine for them it would boil down to a “business case,” and whether the ‘cost’ of experimenting would reap sufficient sales/profits to justify the expenditure in R&D.
So unless all makers go the ‘unlined’ route, or find a lining material/method capable of accommodating wood shrinkage, I suspect they’ll just stick with what they’re doing using current sales figures to justify the status quo.
The whole cracking/lining business does lend weight to the plastic flute argument, but that would bring us 'round to the “a flute’s material makes no difference to the tone” debate, a perennial favourite here.
The thing is, when you put it as though it’s 100%, then it really is unscientific. I have six antique flutes, three with fully lined heads, three are all-wood (one of them with rings, actually). Two of the three with lined heads have cracks, one is pristine. Two of the all-wood flutes have cracks, one is pristine.
If you say the probability of cracking is greatly increased in a flute with a lined head, I’ll accept that, but it’s not at all black and white.
take away the metal lining, …and you have an unlined flute. so why do unlined flutes crack?
from what i understand, rapid loss/gain of water in wood causes the crack that typically occur (aside from damage from accidents). the kicker is that slideless flutes also crack, something not previuosly mentioned. wood can crack, metal or not, although the presence of metal lining increases the potential.
however as we have found, storing flutes at a stable 60% approx. rh is really the cure for unlined wood flutes. and bingo… it also seems to be the answer for lined wood flutes as well. a small tupperware container, hygrometer and some water, and the problem is ‘de-fuzed’. you can have your metal lining and wood flute too without it simply being reduced to a ‘time bomb’. tick tick tick …i have to go now and check on my flutes, i thought i just heard something…
I had written about a 9-million-word wandering response, but quit (so you can thank me now). rama pretty much covered it.
I still think there’s something to do with where the wood is cured, at least initially, as well. My Irish-made flutes seem much more temperamental where humidity’s concerned than my non-Irish-made flute (which happens to be a McGee). I’ve had cracks in both lined and unlined heads and barrels myself (in most cases they came to me cracked, OK?)
So to me it’s still seasoning and stress – sudden change or shock of some sort, whether it’s temperature, torque, humidity, subjecting a dried-out flute to intense playing, or any combination of the above.
After some trial and error, this general rule of thumb seems to be working for my guys, lined and unlined:
– 60% RH
– If flute or environment is cold, let flute settle before playing – there’s nothing worse than hot breath and condensation against cold, dry wood
– Don’t even consider more than a few toots on one that hasn’t been played for a while unless it’s spent several weeks at 60% and has then been well-oiled.
– Once the thing is played in, play it regularly (observing above precautions, of course).
– Swab the flute reasonably well after playing, but if the environment’s dry, don’t overdo it … the wee bit of extra moisture helps the overall humidity.
– However, it’s good to keep thin areas like the tenons as dry and waterproofed as possible.
A question: Why does a bi-metal strip (thermocouple) bend when exposed to a temperature change? The answer is that the two metals have differnt coefficients of expansion, causing the bi-metal strip to bend. Some bi-metals (copper, constantine) will also give off an electrical current with a rise in temperature. I don’t think that that is a worry with flutes, however.
The argument can be made that if wooden flutes with metal liners are kept at a constant temperature and the proper humidity, then there isn’t a great likelihood that the wood will crack. But in the real world of blowing into the flute with a warm, moist breath, the ideal no-crack environment is hard to maintain.
A corollary to this is that non-wooden flutes (silver, polymer, etc.) are less likely to crack under normal environmental conditions. However, they might get stuck to your lip (silver) in cold weather or turn into a deformed mess (polymer) if left on the dashboard of a car on a hot day. Any flute is going to need your care and respect.
Are we certain that it’s simply the lining of a flute that causes an eventual crack, or might it also be the particular way individual makers line the flute in the first place? I understand the physics of the wood-over-metal problem, but clearly, it is not a certainty – much more must be said of humidity(or lack thereof), the piece of wood itself, seemingly insignificant knocks through the years, extreme temp changes, etc. I have an anon. German flute, and like many such flutes, while it did develop a hairline crack in the barrel below the slide, the head itself has never cracked. The flute is a century old, give or take a decade. It also has – unfairly, perhaps – been less carefully treated than many prized, name brands, new or antique. Why has it not cracked? Luck? Surely, if lining must cause cracking, it should have done so long ago. Will it one day? Maybe, but in the meanwhile, it has survived longer than any single player ever will.
There are so many variables in the equation that, while I think Terry has noted the most obvious problem with metal lined heads, he has not proved its certainty (to crack), nor eliminated the certainty of cracking without a lining. Til then, I expect, most players will chose the flute they most like to play or listen to, and have it fixed, should it crack. As for plugging his flutes, or plugging the innovations, I can’t say I blame Terry. Great flutes, great innovations. Unfortunately, not many of us will be around a century from now to know whether significantly more of his flutes survive than, say, lined Grinters.
I’ve only repaired a few cracks, but as far as restoring playability I’ve found the work on the unlined varieties much more involved because the internal landscape of the bore was altered by the gap of the crack. In each case, I had to repair the crack both inside and out and then work the surface of the bore until it was back to perfectly smooth. As for the metal-lined repair – the metal protected the bore and kept me from having to do that, so it was really just a matter of cosmetics.
But that’s only my limited experience on a few cracks that were all pretty much hairline types. Someone just gave me a deKeyser that looks like it has the Grand Canyon running right thru the blowhole and on down the barrel – we’ll see how that goes, heh-heh!
Yep, seems inevitable that any wooden flute will crack. Some good metal flutes are out there that should never crack (and they don’t charge extra for keys!)
Actually, I have always wondered what a conical bored metal flute would sound like.
So three questions,
Were lined heads traditionally more expensive and their fore more likely to be repaired?
Wouldn’t this also affect metal tuning slides?
How much of a difference does the lining make? 20% increase? 40?
Now Cathy, don’t bring work into the conversation. Personally I keep work and play completely separate. For instance, I’ve found that when reading C&F, I don’t think about work at all!
I don’t agee it is inevitable that wooden flutes will crack. If you go through the museum collections you find plenty of 18th century flutes in good shape, while the 19 c flutes have cracks through head and barrel. And the bodies of the 19th c flutes are usually fine, unless there are other cases of trapped metal - eg socket liners, keyblock liners, etc. I don’t know what the practical life of a wooden flute is, but I’m aiming at hundreds of years, perhaps a thousand.
A conical bored metal flute sounds pretty much like a conical wooden flute. Here’s one I’ve played:
Lined heads were (are) more expensive, but I don’t think that influenced repairs. Generally repairs for cracked heads were not practical until the invention of modern glues. Even now, most repairs are temporary at best - sooner or later movement in the wood is likely to open up the crack again unless the overwhelming design fault can be dealt with.
Yes, the tuning slide is the same as a liner and in English-style flutes is the extension of the liner. In French flutes, the slide just extends about 60mm into the end of the head, leaving the rest unlined. The cracks are usually confined to the slide end.
Which really takes me back to my point - if you want a tuning slide, you need to come up with a strategy to attach it that will not split the wood.
I’m not sure I understand the third question - increase in what - cost? That would probably vary between makers depending on how they do the slide.[/url]
Incidentally, I don’t think it means you can’t have lined flutes - you just have to come up with an approach where shinkage of the wood (which is inevitable unless you can guarantee the humidity never drops too low) will not cause conflict with the liner.
For example, take my silver head as a starting point:
In this design, the wooden barrel doesn’t go all the way around the head - there’s a neatly cut lengthwise slit at the back. The wood is bonded to the metal only around the embouchure hole (to keep the joint between wood and metal airtight) - the rest of the wood is free to slide back and forth with the climate. Now imagine that instead of a lip-plate sized bit of wood at the embouchure, we had a full head. The only difference being that the full head also has the slit down the back, and is only bonded to the liner around the embouchure. Bingo - a lined head that won’t split on your next holiday to Arizona.
Now you couldn’t have a slit down the barrel, as it would introduce leakage into the socket, so I’d suggest my New Improved Tuning Slide approach here - the metal slide being encased in cork to permit movement without stressing the wood.
End result - a fully lined head and barrel that should resist annual humidity cycling. The only giveaway would be the slit down the back of the head - that can be as narrow as you like and, if you prefer, filled with a black flexible sealant or strip. I’ll get around to making one some day.
So, I don’t think this has to be hard or has to limit choice - it’s a question of how best to achieve these improvements.
And I certainly don’t think all makers have to use my system (some already do) - but they are free to if they like. I’d just like them to look at the evidence history provides us and come up with some strategy to avoid repeating it.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” - Santayana.
Well far be it from me not to jump into a discussion on wood. One thing we are over looking here is not only wood type but where the hunk of wood was taken from the tree. Is it from the heart wood or farther out, sap wood or farther in. All of my blackwood flutes from the 19th century have cracked heads or barrels or both. Yet my rosewood Cloos is in perfect condition. My unlined cocus flute from about 1860 had a cracked head. Now dont get me wrong, I am not into lined heads and wouldnt buy a new flute with a lined head. My reasoning being why incourage fate. Now that is scientific
