I took a bunch of digital images of Skip’s new keyed flute design (pedestal post), and I’m pretty happy with how they came out. Here’s a sample:
And I finally got a chance to photograph Skip’s engraved flute design.
All the other images are here.
http://www.skiphealy.com/instrument/keyed_main.htm
Cheers,
John
Very nice!
Thanks for sharing.
Jon
I don’t usually go for fancy schmancy engraved keys but those could probably change my mind. What’s the price difference?
Doc
I love the new pedestal posts. It’s a great improvement over the visible screws. I had a chance to see them up close a couple of weeks ago when I visited Skip’s workshop (and left with a new keyless, of course).
John, do you mind saying who’s doing the engraving? Nice design work on the flute pictured.
For those who are engraving fans, or who are intersted in seeing how fine hand engraving is done, there’s a cool video on-line of one of the more well known Master Engravers (Steve Lindsey) working on a Brannen Bros. Flute. The Engraving itself isn’t a bunch of flowery stuff. I found watching the process fascinating. Here’s a link, however be aware, the video is long, so the download time isn’t short, unless your have high speed internet - it’s the 9th link on the page “Engraving Video”: http://www.engravingschool.com/private/index.htm
Loren
P.S. There’s some nice music playing during the video, it’s worth having the volume on while you watch.
Sometimes screws can look bad, as when person rounds off the edges of the slot in buffing or lifts up one of the edges using a poorly chosen screwdriver, but when a person takes the time to precision use them properly and trims the underside of the head so that the slot runs parallel to the lines of the instrument it can show an attention to detail that I personally find attractive.
Hand-Chased Keywork
On a custom basis, the Healy Flute Company can provide custom, hand-tooled engraving on your keywork. Pricing depends on the pattern and how much engraving you want.
Hope I do not look ignorant saying this, but it was my impression that chasing and engraving were two different things. The cup of the key would be made by chasing where as the decorations would be engraved. Or am I just miss reading the statement?
For those who missed it, here’s a link to some of Lindsey’s additional flute (and other) work, the fancier stuff (You’ve got to click on the photos and have a look at the large size images to really appreciate the work):
http://www.lindsayengraving.com/Other%20Engravings.htm
Loren
P.S. Oh yeah, not a bad flute either 
Anyone here happen to work on that one? 
For those unfamiliar with these techniques, Engraving and Chasing are, indeed different techniques. Unless I am mistaken, Chasing involves raising or depressing a pattern into metal by deforming the metal, rather than removing it - usually by means of hammer blows to a tool which strikes the metal to move it. This as opposed to engraving, which uses cutting tools to remove metal.
I don’t claim an expert in this area, however by looking at the key cups, I’d say they do appear to be engraved, along with the rest of the work, rather than chased. I could, however, be wrong.
Loren
Hi Everybody,
Thanks for all the interest in my keyed flutes! The work is indeed hand chased not machine engraved. The work is done by a man in his 80’s that wishes to remain in the background. He is the third generation in his family that has practiced this art, but unfortunatly it is ending with him. My deal with him is that a person who buys one of these flutes can know his name but no one else. Suffice it to say he is a Sicilian man about 6 ft 3, 245 lbs with eyes like a hawk and a crushing handshake. If he says don’t give out da name, I don’t give out da name!
As many of you know I was laid up for an extended period at the beginning of the year. This gave me a lot of time to think about how I could tweak my flutes and I spent a lot of time thinking about the key system. Lowering it to be specific. I used to make a traditional post mounted flute, but wanted to give the keys more stability and reenforcement in case they were accidently knocked about. This is why I have gone to what I call a “pedistal post” which is a post with a wide disc at the bottom that is threaded into the flute body. This allows me to lower the keys making it much easier to use them. I will have keys available on my F and Eb flutes soon as well. I am also in the process of re-working the Rib mounted flutes that I have made for the past several years.
All the best,
Buy more stuff!
Skip Healy
Skip,
Hey man, don’t want to get you in trouble with the Sicilian, just thought thought he deserved some props!
On the subject of hand engraving vs. hand chasing, I’m going to have to most respectfully disagree (or my former Musueum Silver/Metalsmithing teacher will never forgive me) and suggest that at least some, if not all, of the work pictured is engraved, rather than chased as the terms are often cofused.
Before folks start hurling flaming arrows at me, for disagreeing with Skip about his own flutes, please check out the following links from the well respected on-line jewelers/metalsmiths resource Ganoksin - Chasing is essentially a type of embossing (non-material removing process), while engraving is a form of cutting via chip removal, as in the video I linked to earlier.
On Chasing and Repousse - http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/repousse.htm
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/chasing_and_repousse.htm
And on Engraving -
http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/engraving-10-4.htm
Again, I hope you’ll forgive me, Skip, for making the distinction. And please do say hi to Skillen for me if you talk to him.
Best,
Loren
Great that you are back in the saddle, Skip.
Very pleased.
Hi Loren,
Nice to hear from you again and no hard feelings at all about your post. Having sat next to the man in his home studio as he was tap, tap, tapping away on my flute and keys, I can assure you that this work is hand chased, not engraved. After over two hundred years as a "family business"and 70 years of doing the work himself, I think I’ll go with what “Jimmy the Chaser” (as I call him) calls his work!
Howdy,
Some of the confusion may be due to the term “chasing”. Chasing as I understand it means to drive a punch/graver with a hammer.
The term is typically used to mean embossing a design into metal. However, in engraving, which is the process of cutting shallow grooves to make a design, chasing means the graver is struck with a chasing hammer instead of pushed by hand.
Best,
Dave
Yes Dave, the confusion does seem to center around whether the tool is struck by hammer or not, however it’s not whether the tool contacting the metal is struck with a hammer that determines the difference between Chasing and Graving (engraving), but rather it’s the tool being used and how the metal is affected: If the metal is being removed via a chisel of some sort, then it’s Graving/Engraving, if the metal is being moved/formed with punching tools, then it’s Chasing. Also, Chasing is done on relatively thin sheets of metal, nearly always fixed in pitch, or sand, or some other backing material which helps to keep the forming process controllable and keep the metal from being torn or punched through.
Using a hammer on a chisel, to remove metal, is indeed engraving - have a look at world famous Master Engraver and Engraving Instructor Steve Lindsey’s educational site and description of Engraving: http://www.engravingschool.com/private/introduction.htm
Introduction to Hand Engraving
“Hand Engraving can be described as the process in which a hardened, shaped, and sharpened piece of steel, called a ‘Graver’, is pushed through the metal’s surface. This is done with one of three methods: by hand pressure (push graver), with a small lightweight hammer and chisel (graver), or with a pneumatic air-driven hammer.”
And
"When using the hammer and chisel method, both hands are required; one to hold the graver, and the other to deliver light hammer impacts against the graver, driving it forward through the material being cut. "
Lots of other info and pictures of wonderful work on that page and throughout his websites, btw.
Have a look at the top image on this page from a School in the U.S. specializing in Chasing and Repousse - this was chased: http://www.valentinyotkov.com/site/about.htm
Almost looks like engraving, doesn’t it? Lines formed into metal. However, the lines were made by denting the thin metal (mounted in pitch) with relatively dull tools - this technique can’t be performed on something like a flute key shank - the key is too thick, engraving must be done instead - no deforming of the metal, cutting to remove metal, to create the lines, is done instead.
Finally, from Wikipedia: "Chasing is the opposite technique to repoussé, and the two are used in conjunction to create a finished piece. Whilst repoussé is used to work on the reverse of the metal to form a raised design on the front, chasing is used to refine the design on the front of the work by sinking the metal. The term chasing is derived from the noun “chase”, which refers to a groove, furrow, channel or indentation. The adjectival form is “chased work”.
The techniques of repoussé and chasing utilise the plasticity quality of metal, forming shapes by degrees. There is no loss of metal in the process, as it is stretched locally and the surface remains continuous. The process is relatively slow, but a maximum of form is achieved, with one continuous surface of sheet metal of essentially the same thickness."
Sorry to beleaguer the point gang, but having been through a certain amount of formal silver/metalsmithing training, and also having grown up in a family of Antique dealers, I had to add a bit more on this one. And once again, I hope you’ll forgive my persistance and poor manners for disagreeing with you Skip, but we instrument makers are a hard-headed, cantankerous, and perfectionistic bunch, prone to quibble over thousandths of an inch, and perhaps even differences between Chasing and Engraving
That said I’m not going to be the one to tell your large Sicillian friend he shouldn’t call himself a chaser if he likes too!
Glad to hear you’re feeling better Skip, and absolutely, the new flutes are lovely.
Cheers,
Loren
Oh, come on guys. Quite trying to demystify the stuff! Seriously, I have always admired the silverwork of bagpipe mounts and wondered why we don’t see it in flutes.
Elves. Some are big and Sicilian, but they’re still elves, very secretive about their work. Jon C. has one that lives under the sink.
Quite right, we should keep these “Dark Arts” undercover and unexplained.
Seriously, I have always admired the silverwork of bagpipe mounts and wondered why we don’t see it in flutes.
I’d say it’s largely due to the cost involved with having someone (highly skilled) do this work by hand.
Also, I suspect, because many of today’s “trad” players seem to want the basic, plain and simple (beautiful in it’s own way) look. Decorative engraving is not completely uncommon in Boehm flute world, but that’s a different crowd all together - You’re not likely to see many trad players going for the Diamond encrusted endcap route, if you see what I mean.
Still, I’m a huge fan of tasteful (in the eye of the beholder, of course), well designed and executed hand engraving. I’d love to learn the craft, and hope to, at some point. Hey Skip, Jimmy doesn’t happen to live in Beantown does he? Geeze, it’s such a shame to see these few remaining “old school/old world” craftsmen going on with no one to pass their knowledge to 
Well, at least we have the “Young Turks”, like Lindsey to watch, and learn from. Not that most of us could afford having the likes of him work on our flutes though…
Loren
I won’t tell him if you won’t, Jon!
Loren
[Also, I suspect, because many of today’s “trad” players seem to want the basic, plain and simple (beautiful in it’s own way) look. Decorative engraving is not completely uncommon in Boehm flute world, but that’s a different crowd all together - You’re not likely to see many trad players going for the Diamond encrusted endcap route, if you see what I mean.}
Your last name doesn’t have to be Galway to have a little extra. I’ve often wondered if folks like this might do something with flute rings:
http://www.celtarts.com/mounts.htm
Indeed Robin, that could be done for flutes. I can’t say for certain on the pieces you linked to, but typically, that sort of thing is either cast (many of the celtic knotwork rings you see with these sorts of patterns are cast, because it’s cheaper to make the pattern once, then have it copied via casting) or if each piece is actually hand made, then the patterns are “relief engraved”, which means the engraving technique is used to remove the areas of metal around the design, rather than cutting the design into the metal. This is what gives the impression that the knotwork, dragons, etc. are raised.
This sort of work, done by hand, would tend to be rather expensive, although a maker could easily enough have cast pieces made for each section of his own flutes, and then offer these sorts of bands as an option - the upside being the price would be reasonable for the upgrade to cast bands, with the downside being that you wouldn’t get something personalized.
Thanks for posting that link. Personally, after having worked for a couple of years doing straight production work - making the same design instruments over, and over, hundreds of times - my desire is to do work that has more, dare I say “artistic” variation, so I enjoy seeing this sort of work. It does seem that., with a few exceptions (Noy, Wilkes, Healy, the occasional cast keyed Acanthus replica Grinter) there’s not much going on with regards to decorative/ornamental work on “Irish” flutes at the moment, but again, I can’t help thinking this is more a matter of demand, rather than anything else. I could be wrong on that though, I could very well be wrong on that.
Loren