I just got a wooden flute off ebay for cheap. Looks like it’s a Huller, from the 19teens. It’s almost playable; the key springs work fine but need new pads. It’s also very quiet. It’s 3 rosewood pieces + tuning slide with a metal headjoint.
The upper octave seems noticeably sharper compared to the lower. Is this something that can be adjusted with the twisting cork-stopper-adjuster? Any hints on how to do that?
Moving the cork back away from the embouchure hole should slightly flatten the upper octave. If it’s not been played much, I’d oil it good and be sure it’s humidified very well for a few days…but you probably know that already. 
Eric
I have to pull the cork way out to get the upper octave in tune. A light smear of cork grease on the tenons turned it into a playable instrument, so I suspect the headjoint tenon was leaking due to dry cork. Basically, everything above the low G sounds OK now, but the D, E, and F# in the low octave sound really fuzzy and their intonation is off. I suspect it’s still leaking somewhere, so I’ll keep working on it.
I’ll find out how to oil it and do so over the weekend. Getting the thing into a normal state of maintenance may be all the restoration it needs.
For the curious, the auction page is still available and has pictures.
THat’s great about the upper notes. I’d try humidifying it (put in a piece of tupperware or other plastic storage unit and put a damp sponge in there, too).
As for oiling, oil with almond oil or pure virgin olive oil (these two are easy to find) by simply wiping the outsie and running through the inside of the flute with a cotton or silk rag wet with the oil (you don’t want the oil running out, but you want to see the shine of the oil inside and out - I err on the side of using too little oil and simply oiling more frequently). When I bought an antique german flute, I oiled it about twice a week for a month which seemed to help it.
Looking at the picture, you have exactly the same flute I did (with that nickel silver/german silver head - although mine, now Mary’s has a RH thumb Bb touch and a high trill key). If the upper notes now sound OK, it may well be the cork/thread between the body sections or one of the lower keys need a new pad or spring adjustment. Your flute has a great G# touch by the way!
Eric
Yes, cool looking flute…
I agree: in general flutes that haven’t played for a long time need oil.
If the notes under G sound fuzzy, it could also indicate that the G# pad needs adjustment or changing. Eric gave us somewhere on this board a method for repadding with silicon. It’s easy to do and works very well.
OK, I just oiled it, and that seemed to take care of the intonation of the low notes somehow. they still sound fuzzy but it may just be a matter of learning the embouchure. The low notes are still weak and quiet, but perhaps that will be fixable too.
The Cnat pad fell off. I’m sure the others need to be replaced, too. I’d be humidifying it right now, but the long F key makes the foott joint too long for any containers I have. I’ll have to buy a container and humidify it tonight.
Thanks for the help
OK, I’m reading this now… It will help me with the next few steps. Thanks again
I’m glad I can help. Have fun working your flute back into shape! It can take several months of humidifying, oiling, and regular play to get an old flute sounding really good again.
I’m sure you know this, but really limit your playing time at first - you don’t want it to crack on ya!
Eric
It’s likely the keypads although a lot of flutes from that era weren’t really designed to honk on the bottom end.
Try wrapping an elastic on the long F. That is a frequent offender. If it doesn’t improve move on to the other keys.
Any other tricks from the more experienced out there?
Cheers,
Aaron
Don’t assume I know anything. I’ve only been playing flute for 3 months.
I taped over the long F hole for now. I think I will repad it this weekend and then start humidifying it. I think it has real potential… some notes on it really sing out.
What I meant by not playing to much is I’d limit myself to maybe 1 or 2 fifteen minute playing sessions per day for about the first week, then I’d slowly increase playing time by about 15 minutes every third day, then after a couple of weeks you should be fine to play as you’d like. Be sure and swab it out after playing, too!
It sounds like your flute has great potential. As I said earlier, frequent playing will bring out the best in your flute, so don’t be surprised if it sounds good now, but you notice it improving with time. I think James said his antique may have taken a year or so to really shine (that doesn’t mean it was bad before then).
Eric
I removed the C# and C keys, initially to clean under them, but now the bottom end of the flute is as strong as the rest. In fact, coming back to it a few hours after oiling it has shown much improvement. I’ve begun to humidify it now, and will tackle the keys over the weekend. I’ll leave thhe bottom two off but keep them just in case.
Being in a sealed container with a sponge isn’t going to rust the metal parts, is it? I made sure they’re not in contact with the sponge, at least.
The intonation on the low notes is weird. At times its right on, at times it’s off. I imagine I’ll sort that out over time.
The metal parts are german silver an may turn off color, but you can clean them up nicely with silver polish (it’s gentler than brasso or brass polish). That shouldn’t happen in your container since you’re getting it out regularly to play and work on it. You may not need to do the tupperware thing forever depending on the humidity where you are. I keep my rosewood flute in it’s case with only the damp rag I use to clean the flute as it’s humidifier…and that seems to work, but then again I play almost every day often for an hour or more (I probably miss one day each week). Also, don’t have the sponge be too wet, just a tad damp to release some extra humidity into the box (You might want to just use a part of the sponge maybe an inch or two square).
The intonation on the lower notes is more difficult on those old flutes, but humidity, oil and practice should likely resolve that problem. You could also have a leak of some sort at either the joint or one of the keys. THe silicone pads may clear up the issue for you. You don’t need the C and C# as you’ve discovered, and they’re the hardest keys to repad using silicone anyway (it’s doable, I did it).
Eric
repadding the mid joint keys revealed that this thing has a really pretty voice. I’m doing the same to the foot keys now, and I am ecstatic about it. Usually if I buy anything with the intention of fixing it up, it ends up being a waste of money and buried in a closet somewhere. This one’s turning into a real jem
thanks again for the help. I think beyond these keys, all that will be left is to keep oiling and humidifying it. But even if this is the best it’ll ever be, well, then I am satisfied
Cool! If you’re that happy with the sound and you haven’t been playing long (like you mentioned), you’ll be amazed at how good that flute will sound in 2 years when you improve. I listened to old recordings of myself from several years back, and it really shows how long it takes to truly play the flute well (I’m still not there yet!).
Did you do the silicone pad method? Was that easy or what?
Eric
It was pretty easy. I need to take the keys off and trim the excess off the pads, because some of them have way too much goo, but yeah, it turned out great.
The intonation is still off on the foot joint. that may just be the way it is. I’ll give it time, of course. It can be compensated for, but it’s a bit of a pain. The low and high E are in tune but the high D is sharper than the low D. The F# is a little flat.
All the metal bits have already tarnished from the humidification, but I figure I’ll let that got for a while and polish it up when I’m done humidifying it.
Inspired by all of this, I greased the tenon on my sweetheart, and that made an astounding change in its character. I don’t think it had been greased in 20 years.
The intonation is still off on the foot joint. that may just be the way it is. I’ll give it time, of course. It can be compensated for, but it’s a bit of a pain. The low and high E are in tune but the high D is sharper than the low D. The F# is a little flat.
Hello,
Actually, almost all the flutes of this period have a slightly flat F#. It shocked me with my first antique flute, but now I’m used to it.
On a lot of flutes too, the low D is a bit flat. That’s Terry McGee’s “flat foot syndrom”. Check his website: http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/flatfeet.html
In general, german flutes don’t have it too much though… What fingering do you use for middle D? Do you open the first hole?
The flat low D can be compensated by blowing harder, or adjusting the angle you blow in the flute.
From the Firescribble pages:
Nineteenth century English flutes were not originally designed to be played with the “whistle” fingering: if you look at the back of Hammy Hamilton’s The Irish Flute Player’s Handbook (or in The Flute, by Rockstro), you’ll see a chart that shows how the simple-system flute was originally meant to be fingered. Opening either of the two F-natural keys while you play F# will bring the note closer to pitch; combining this with opening the D# key may bring it even closer. Opening the long C-natural key while playing C# (all holes open) will bring that note up to pitch as well. But while this explains why these two particular notes sound “off” when played with the traditional fingering used by Irish musicians, it still doesn’t account for the sharp A found on many flutes. Plus it doesn’t help you if you have an unkeyed flute.
Opening those keys does, indeed, bring those notes into tune. What a pain… I guess whenever I need to feature those notes prominently, I’ll either learn to play it right or I’ll just play a different flute