This is not the most popular subject, but, I’m wondering, anyone who’s moved the stopper in an Olwell? How did you get it to move? I’ve had mine about 5 years and haven’t moved it once. (it doesn’t move) Wondering how long it takes to cement in place.. only kidding.. sort of..
thanks in advance,
Lesl, I am so afraid of that stuff with a wooden flute; I’ve only done it twice while trying to sort out a particularly confusingly-tuned flute (needless to say, not an Olwell).
But there are others on the board who’ve done it … one other thing might be to contact kara_l from this board; she works for Patrick and could give you the word from the horse’s mouth.
Anyway, when I moved mine I unscrewed the crownpiece and then took a length of dowel rod not too much smaller than the bore of the flute (I put my silk cleaning swab over it for extra scratch protection). Then I put the dowel in the head, rested the end on the (carpeted) floor, and basically pushed the head down with steady pressure until the cork popped out (and boy, did it pop). There was quite a bit of force required that first time; the second time much less; the cork slid fairly easily.
After that, you reinsert the cork and use the marks on your cleaning/tuning rod to realign the cork with the blowhole.
When the rod’s main mark shows in the exact middle of the blowhole, this is supposed to be the ideal position. However, some people like to push the cork out a shade (toward the head end) to try to either boost response in their low registers (we used to do this with our Boehms all the time), or in (toward the blowhole) to sharpen the tuning.
But small and judicious adjustment is the general rule of thumb; too far either way generally throws the flute out of whack.
Good luck!
cat.
Easy for you to say! I actually have an Olwell-manufactured cleaning rod to use on my Olwell-manufactured flute. The cleaning rod has many decorative marks on it (actually they are little ridges around the circumference of the rod, rather than marks), but none of these marks has anything to do with positioning the cork relative to the embouchure hole. My advice would be to make your own reference mark on the rod before popping the cork, which you can then use to give you a rough idea of where to place it back in prior to fine-tuning its location by playing the flute and adjusting the cork until it’s in tune with itself.
My real advice, though, would be to not mess with your cork at all until you’re sure you have a problem. Lots of other factors can affect the internal tuning of your flute, such as a bad embouchure day (or week or month - your blow is a terrible thing to lose!), a leak somewhere, a sudden drastic change in temperature or humidity, etc. Exhaust all other possible causes and remedies before messing with the cork.
I’ve had my Olwell headjoint since 1992 and have never moved the cork once. Other players I know are constantly messing with their cork placement. A little anecdote: I also (sorta) play concertina in addition to the flute. A while ago at a session, a flute player friend of mine looked at my concertina sitting on the table and said “How does that work?” I immediately whipped out my hexagonal screwdrivers and took the instrument apart to show her the inner workings (which are quite complex and sometimes a bit finicky). But a few weeks later at another session, the two of us were sitting there watching another flute player mess with his cork, and she said to me “I’d never try anything like that.” To which I replied “I wouldn’t either. I’ll take my concertina apart any day, but I’m too scared to try moving that little piece of cork!”
If you don’t have a dowel, a C or D tinwhistle is about the right diameter – I use a Water Weasel, which is heavy-walled and made from plastic so’s not to damage the flute or cork.
Lesl, now looking again at your original question, I’m wondering what you mean when you say “stopper”. Are you talking about the end cap (made of the same wood as the flute) or the cork inside the bore? If it’s the end cap, that’s purely decorative and can be removed with no adverse effects. Sometimes they are a bit tight, but a good twist like opening a jar of pickles will loosen it enough to pop out. (Olwell end caps are just corked plugs, like the other joints on the flute. But I once owned a Grinter for a while that had an elaborately carved wooden screw inside the endcap. Pretty neat, actually.)
If it’s the cork you’re talking about though when you say “stopper”, see my reply above…
What can I say? I enjoy living dangerously.
In all seriousness though, I don’t think it is a huge deal to move the cork. Just make sure you mark the original placement and then you can always put it back in the spot where the maker set it.
b
I suppose one of the reasons for my relative timidity in messing with the flute as compared to the concertina might be that if I need to go whining back to the maker to undo a possible mistake on my part, my concertina’s maker lives about a five-minute drive from my local session, whereas my flute’s maker is two and a half hours away. Basically, though, I’m probably just a wimp (who’s lucky enough to have a very well-made flute that’s never needed adjusting…)
I definitely share your fear, John … basically, there’s something about shoving stuff around inside delicate, eminently crackable material that just scares the bejeezus out of me.
And maybe the Olwell rods don’t have marks because you’re not supposed to need to move an Olwell cork (I’d believe that!).
But good point on the reference mark.
Like I said, we used to move our Boehm corks around a fair amount; after a year or two of this the cork got so loose it would just slide around when the weather was cold, requiring me to soak the cork before playing until I could save enough odd-job money to get it fixed. THAT was a drag!
I just have the standard metal rod for my flute(s). When I need to move my cork I’ll drop a dime down the tube so it’s lying flat against the cork, that way I don’t mess it up while moving it. If your cork is really stuck I’d go out and get a dowel or a drum stick, might try to get it moveing the from endcap end first so as not to risk hurting the tuning slide.
Well lets see. John, thanks, yes I meant the cork. My flute’s cork isn’t cork (some sort of black plug) so I called it a stopper. Is that the right word? My thing inside the hj, it won’t move.
I have popped a few corks before, on a Seery and on my old M&E before Frank got it, they were pretty straightforward. This one is too tight to use the old push-against the table routine. I mean, put the dowel in and push the hj down on it, vertically on the table, and bam, out pops cork up in the air. This one has no give in it and I am rather leery of fooling with it, though Cats experiment sounds like fun 
I’ll try that on a different flute..
George’s idea of the dime makes sense. Thanks George. I found a good dowel not long ago, its pretty thick, almost like a whistle. (I wouldn’t feel safe using a Water Weasel instead of a dowel!)
But if John hasn’t moved his since 92 then maybe I won’t either. (or will we both just have cemented corks?) I was hoping someone would know, 'oh yes the thing about the olwell corks is this, just … … … (Oh I dunno!) Besides, I’m probably just having a bad hair week.
You’re so funny. 
And I’m sure your ‘hair’ will return to its usual lovely self next week.
Call Patrick or write Kara; you’ll be glad. (Gawd, I hope they don’t tell you to put the head in the freezer or something 
)
Hey, one question … you did try just unscrewing the end cap/crown and making sure it and the cork/stopper aren’t all one piece, didn’t you? I doubt they would be, but … ?
yeh the top comes off with a nice popping sound, that’s the end cap, right? Only those fancy flutes have the screw kind. .. ..
Well, there’s fancy and there’s fancy. Not sure which you mean here. There are the patent-head flutes (Frank Claudy has at least one of these) where you turn the head like a screw to tune the flute, unlike the normal tuning slide. Those are pretty damn fancy. But the Grinter I had wasn’t like that; he just had a screw-on end cap instead of the normal popping kind. But the popping kind are perfectly adequate (more than adequate, really), and from the outside they both look the same. In fact, if you didn’t know that the Grinter end caps screw off, you might even damage the flute trying to pop it off like a traditional end cap. I wouldn’t say that’s necessarily a good thing…
So, Lesl, you’ve never really said why you want to move your cork. Is it because you think there’s a problem that needs fixed, or just because it’s something you want to try because others are able to move theirs? Because if you’ve gone this long without moving it, it may well be stuck in place and you could do some damage if you’re not careful. But if it’s stuck in the right place, well then you have no worries! I suppose if one wants to live on the edge like young Brendan, one needs to start playing with one’s cork immediately after getting one’s flute.
But if you really think you have a problem, I agree with Cathy. Call Patrick before you try anything. If there’s really a problem, he’ll likely offer to fix it for you himself, and probably at no charge to you either (other than shipping or transportation).
Geez, my nach Meyer has a screw-type endcap (as does my Schultz). I just wish my Baroque flute did – you have to move the cork when you go from A415 to A440. It would be nice to just rotate the cap once or twice rather than moving the cork by hand.
So, John, who’s the concertina maker in the area? (This being asked the day after I told my wife that I wouldn’t take up any new instruments for 10-15 years.)
All I can say is that I moved the stopper/cork on the Olwell that I have, so it clearly can be done. I also bought the flute second hand, so it’s not like it gets stuck in place after a while. However, it did take some force to move it initially.
Chas - the local concertina maker is Dana Johnson. He lives up in Montgomery county.
b
Brendan, do you know if the previous owner moved the cork at all when he/she had it? And what was it that gave you the urge to move it yourself in the first place, some problem with the flute’s intonation, or just your desire to live life on the edge? I’m only asking because in my experience Patrick sends all his flutes out with the corks in the exact right spot, with no need to ever be moved. (Which is why mine has never been moved, along with every other Olwell owner’s flute I know - except for you.) Although I suppose it’s possible, I wouldn’t expect ideal cork placement to be one of those factors that varies from one player to the next, since it basically governs the flute’s internal intonation with itself rather than some more external aspect. And a good flute ought to stay in tune with itself no matter who’s playing it. I guess the exception to this might be if a particular player needed to move the tuning slide to one extreme or the other in order to get to concert pitch or in tune with the session. But I know I’ve had to move my slide 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in range over the course of time, and have never noticed at any of these positions that it went out of tune with itself. Only when I pulled my slide out as far as it would go (just to see if I could get my D flute down to C# or even C) did I start noticing that it was out of tune with itself.
It’s clear though that Olwell corks can be moved, even if they are quite tight. My worry would be possibly damaging the bore or doing cosmetic damage on the outside as a byproduct of whatever means was used to mount the force necessary to budge the cork. There’s probably a right way and a wrong way to do it, which is why I’d talk with Patrick about how to do it or even have him do it for me. But then again, as we all know I’m a wimp when it comes to corks. I don’t even like opening bottles of wine…
And Chas, ditto what Brendan said about Dana the concertina maker. An as-yet undiscovered treasure he is!
Right you are John!
… in my experience Patrick sends all his flutes out with the corks in the exact right spot, with no need to ever be moved.
That’s what I wanted to know, that they are suppose to be like that. I’m not having trouble with the cork. Trouble with my hair, and with blowing up to pitch consistently when quiet, yes. Cork, no. But it didn’t move when I tried… … hey what’s wrong with my cork.. (blow another couple long tones…)
ok.. I have been tackling ‘Better Stronger Faster’ the fife book, at 8am in the morning - (ie just how flat can you go). During an (undeserved) break, stuck my new dowel in there just to see if the cork was still in the same spot, and gave a small shove.. discovered the cork was immobile. Carried on blowing.. I don’t think long tones are good for your serenity..
I now see I ought have asked, Why are the olwell corks immobile. I thought mine was the Only One. (I never worry about this sort of thing anymore when I’m playing tunes, that’ll teach me eh!)
Thanks John. (really)
I’ll have to find something else to think about during tomorrow morning’s long tones now. Maybe seals.
Well, I had the experience of moving a cork in an Olwell this evening.
My Olwell boxwood Rudall-style flute has been my soulmate for the last six-plus months (ever since I received it). But recently the upper octave had been very touchy. The G and above were becoming increasingly difficult to hit, and were becoming very breathy. Plus I’d noticed that the B was apparently flat. I finally got a tuner out, and the B was flat. And the A, and the G, and the high-D. To borrow a phrase from JessieK, “I’d begun to doubt my beloved Olwell.” I’d suspected that all that time on the traverso was ruining my embouchure for the Irish flute. But no.
I checked the cork, and it was literally 8-10 mm further from the embouchure hole than it was supposed to be. I can just speculate that a fraction of a mm each time I swab it had added up to that. It’s back to the easiest, smoothest flute I’ve ever played.
Oh, and BTW, the cork is one of them newfangled synthetic corks. It’s not at all difficult to move, which I guess isn’t surprising.
Charlie, when you say “8-10 mm further from the embouchure hole than it was supposed to be”, how far was it supposed to be? The reason I ask is I have an old Clementi flute which is set about 19mm but I also have a Tony Dixon Polymer conical bore flute with the cork only 13mm from the centre of the embouchure hole.
Jack