I’ve just finished doing up this little 4-key F flute. It’s nothing special - probably German made, but seriously HP, about A=450 so far as I can determine, not bad intonation with itself, though one or two issues, and a reasonable but not excellent voice. It plays quite well and is in good condition, no cracks or bad dents etc.
But it is odd!
I’d very much appreciate any comments from our makers and fettlers - Terry, Jon, Casey et al - have any of you, or any of my fellow fettlers, seen owt like this before, or have any ideas on the hows and whys?
The construction appears to be a lamination of two pieces of wood - I’m not certain what, as the outer surface is lacquered deep brown, but both layers do appear to be wood - certainly one can see grain down the bore. The wood is a deep reddish brown, but I doubt it is cocus - grain too coarse and fibrous - and it seems a bit soft for that too. I’m guessing a fruit-wood? But the key thing is I’ve never seen this method of construction before, nor is its point (surely costly in work/effort on what can only ever have been a cheap instrument?) or any advantages obvious! The lamination can be seen easily enough in the end-on photos below, and goes right through the whole flute. The inner portion is about 1.5mm thick. I’d presume the outer tube was reamed, a rod was glued in and then re-drilled and reamed? The centreing seems to be spot on and the whole job tapers, so not the easiest thing to do well! I can’t see how this would offer, say, any economies in using up odd scraps of timber, nor particularly that it is likely to offer any tonal advantages, though I daresay any kind of lamination, even with no alternation of grain direction, offers some strength advantages. Perhaps it is meant to double as a truncheon? At the quality/cost level this must have aimed at, I doubt they’d have been unduly worried about splitting a few years down the line, and in any case there are no metal linings.
Finally, yes, now it is fully overhauled, it is for sale if anyone wants to make me an offer on it, though I’ll do a sound clip before I post it properly for sale.
I’ve seen such laminations and have actually seen a modern version that “straightened” a warped piece of some rather obscenely figured boxwood. I’ve occasionally done that type of lamination on unstable woods myself and once set up to do it its not difficult. I have some California olive wood from what was the oldest Olive there (that is, until they cut it donw) that I plan to use this way someday.
These Bb flutes are also not that uncommon. I have a bunch of derelicts that someone gave me that I might just post on eBay soon as I am not doing anything (or more importantly, want to do anything) with.
Thanks Casey. Another possible rationale that ocurred to me is that it could be a way of rescuing a mis-reamed set of joints? Ream 'em out a bit further, plug 'em and treat as new? Apprentices working on low-end items making and then learning from correcting their own mistakes? That’s a totally speculative fantasy, though.
BTW, this one is an F, not a Bb - and there are certainly loads of the latter around. This one plays pretty much at F# in modern pitch if anyone has need of such a thing!!!
Looks like a correction on a mistake.
I have to do this with a RRC that was over reamed by some well meaning repairman in the past, should be a fun project. I only plan on going in about
4" though.
Another possibility is that, if it’s an old German flute with the tuning being so variable on these, a maker may have simply bored out the old bore, inserted a new cylinder of wood and used an appropriate reamer to give it a new and better tuned bore.
A valid theory in itself as a general possibility, Garry, but I’m as near certain as can be that this is original construction. In any case, I don’t think any current maker would expend that sort of effort on repairing such an instrument as this - it just isn’t worth it! And whilst the tuning is OK-ish, it is only kinda average for a period flute - certainly not improved! After all, Casey may find this an easy enough task “once set up for it”, but setting up would involve conoid reamers for the enlarged body joint bores, a means of making conoid dowels to fit exactly into them, plus cylindrical ones for the head, correct final bore reamers and so on. To rescue a really good historic instrument one might go that far, but for a mediocre, High Pitch F flute? No way!
Another possibility was simply borrowing from one batch of wood to use for another batch - and filling in where needed, rather than correcting a reaming mistake. My guess is if you split it open longitudinally you would see that a (pilot bored!) cylinder was inserted into a cylincrical opening (easiest) and then reamed.
Another possibility: even though they didn’t have the Internet back then they did and probably discussed over a few pints the problems we occaionally face such as wood cracking, oiling, etc., and probably had to deal with occasional blowharded opinions about it (Rockstro for instance was a blowhard and I am not referring to his flute playing. He lost, by the way.). It might be that this maker tried to eliminate checks and cracks in the wood by turning it into a sort of polywood with the grain of one lamination going at right angles to the other. I have occaionally done this on sockets. One might be able to see if this is the case by looking at the end in bright light.
Casey, I think you can see from the pics above that the insert here is conoid in the body joints, not cylindrical - it is roughly the same thickness at both ends of each joint, visible as a ring in the pictures. I cannot be certain, but peering into the bore the grain of the insert seems to run longitudinally. I can’t say which way the outer part’s grain runs for sure due to the lacquer finish. can one tell from the end-grain on the head and foot? I suppose that, even if the longitudinal growth grain of both parts was lengthways in the lamination, if the timber’s radial grain was at right angles between the laminates that might offer some structural improvement, especially in lower grade timber?
