I just acquired this wonderfully groaty old boxwood and ivory flute in hopes of restoring it to playable condition. It has no makers marks but seems like pretty good workmanship to me.
This link should take you to a slideshow of photos…
Has anyone any information on a flute like this? It’d be great to know how old it is and perhaps in what country it was made.
FWIW the dimensions are:
Overall length 59.37 cm
Distanced from center of embrouchure end of flute (sounding) 52.07 cm
C# to D# = 25.40 cm
Restoration Plan
The flute is structurally sound except for 2 barrel cracks on the 3rd section. (r-hand) and it’s missing 1/2 an ivory ring and the foot ring too. Looks like it took a shot that cracked the ivory in half and cracked the barrel too. I plan on fixing those cracks using super glue and & regluing the loose ivory rings using gorilla glue. Once the gluing is completed then I plan to oil it using pressed almond oil.
Any advice on cleaning old flutes or leads to old threads is appreciated. I’ve looked at a bunch of old threads & there is a lot of information about gluing, but I did not have any luck finding information on what kind of cleaners are ok to use on wood & ivory. I’m not worried about removing the stains - I like that it looks old, but I just want to get the crud off without damaging it before I start gluing it up. I guess the tough part will be replacing the missing ivory ring on the foot and the 3rd ring that is cracked in half. I’ll have to come up with a reasonable punt on that. I plan to use embroidery thread laced w/beeswax for re-threading the tenons.
Any advice on removing / repositioning the cork on a vintage gal like this is appreciated. The cork is only 1.25 cm back from the center of the embouchure hole which seems tight - the embouchure is a elongated oval measuring 1.15 cm long. I peered in in there and man that cork looks snug - I’d be afraid to try an remove it. Do you think the cap unscrews or should I carefully push it out with a dowel?
The key looks like german silver to me. sticks a bit but that’s to be expected.
Thanks Casey - I was looking through Dayton Miller & saw some Firth Pond similar but I’m not very adept at identifying flutes. Be kind of cool if it was American. I’ll post some more pic’s as the restoration goes along.
The acetone you use for cleaning the cracks before gluing can also be used for cleaning the surface of the flute. You can try alcohol first for the surfaces as it’s safer to use but acetone is the more potent. Well ventilated space needed for using acetone…and protect the skin – rubber gloves are good.
If necessary, a little light rubbing along the grain of the wood with fine steel wool (0000 grade) helps before final oiling. These solvents won’t damage the materials.
Cork placement – generally needs to be one head bore diameter back from the centre of the embouchure hole. Assuming a conical D flute, this would be around 19mm.
Rings normally need access to a lathe to replace/repair. Ivory substitutes can be stained if required but it’s not a simple process.
Thanks Garry - I’ve cleaned up the flute and it’s got such a pretty color to it that I am going to have to sand out all the scratches instead of leaving them as planned…
I am in the process of buying a lathe (is this a warning sign?) to turn some replacement rings. Any suggestions on sourcing materials? I don’t think my local hardware store has artificial ivory in-stock.
Also is it ok to use steam to try and soften the glue holding the 1/2 ring on? I need to get that off somehow & it isn’t cooperating. Once I get that off, then I can repair the 2 cracks on that tenon & proceed with making replacement rings.
The section of ring should come off if left to soak in the acetone. If the glue is old, steaming might loosen it too. Neither will damage the wood or ivory.
As far as ivory substitutes are concerned, the archives on the Earlyflute list have quite a bit about these and staining them – materials such as corian or cowbone among others. Since your flute is made of box and ivory, it would be worthwhile to head over to that list for additional info and post your query there.
There are quite a few makers/restorers who work regularly with these materials who post there. Somebody may even have come up with some new approach since the last discussion…ivory substitutes are a kind of ongoing development.
Chris,
I’m afraid that I am not much help on recommending lathes. Maybe Jon Cornia or one of the other flutemakers can help you on that one. I asked the question because I was curious.
The lathe is likely your more immediate issue than the ivory substitute then.
It wouldn’t be possible to make a useful suggestion for a lathe purchase without knowing what you would like to do with one and what kind of space/facilities you’ve got for it. If you only plan to do small jobs like rings, stoppers, endcaps and short grafts for flute repairs, you could get away with a small bench-lathe adequate for that kind of work - something with a cross-slide that you can also use to turn metal or the tougher plastics with more ease and precision than on a woodlathe. For working with longer sections for flute joints it needs to be bigger and heavier…
My own is a fairly heavy 14" X 40" mechanical lathe with a 46mm spindle bore which is towards the top end in terms of size for flute-making - I just happen to have the space for it but you don’t need something this big - it just helps when a lathe is bigger.
If you do get round to buying an ivory substitute, an important consideration would be how strong and inflexible the material will be when turned to the dimensions of a ring. Some of the substitutes may look like ivory ok but may not properly reinforce the wooden socket when the tenon is inserted.
If you don’t already know about it, you can look in on the flutemakers group for help with lathe types:
Thank Garry - right now I’m budget challenged so just looking for a cheap lathe that will do this ring job. I have no aspirations to make flutes, but I love fixing / rescuing old items and putting them back in service. I’m excited about getting this flute restored and then see if it is going to be a session flute or not.
I’m leaning towards corian or commercial artificial ivory as a substitute for real ivory. I also have an antique Bb band flute that needs a foot ring so plan to do that also.
