I recently bought an Oz whistle off a forum member, and when it arrived I was struck by how very oily the exterior of the wooden tube was (it also stank of rancid almond oil). It had quite some difficulty playing the high A and B without a big push, and tended to form a lot of condensation in the windway (it’s a phosphor bronze model). Anyway, a few days ago I washed it in warm water with dishwashing detergent, giving it a good scrubbing inside and out, and also dropped some concentrated detergent into the windway and rinsed it out with warm water. I then gave it a very light coating of oil in the bore and wiped it out after just a few minutes. Well, this has pretty much solved the problems I was experiencing with the instrument. It now plays much more smoothly up through its registers and condensation seems to be a thing of the past - the windway treatment may need repeating from time to time, I suppose. No doubt a clean, non-condensing windway will contribute to a smoother response.
I mention this because I often read FS posts which tell us that an instrument has been oiled regularly. In my experience with whistles and recorders, overoiling can be a problem, especially when oil gets into the windway and forms a waxy layer which increases the risk of condensation forming. Again, in my experience, no instrument should be so abundantly oiled that it feels oily to the touch, and probably no more than once or twice a year in any case.
Just a thought. But my Oz whistle now plays very differently - much better than before. In fact I’m really enjoying it for the first time.
Oz recommends oiling once a month but I think you hit the nail on the head with your suggestion to keep oil out of the windway and wiping out the excess oil after you oiled the bore.
I also just acquired a used Oz and the owner had maintained as per Mitch’s instructions. However when I oiled it I must have gotten some oil in the windway because it was wetting out halfway through a tune. After reading your post I cleaned the windway with dish detergent and that fixed the wetting out problem. I always wipe out the bore after I finish playing so there’s no danger of it ever being over-oiled.
I shudder to think how much oil had to be applied to actually clog the instrument. All you’re trying to do is seal the wood, not drown it.
On a different note: I know about oiling the bore of a wooden instrument periodically, but what about the outer surfaces? Do you need to oil the exterior surfaces? Otherwise, how should one maintain the finish on fine wooden instruments?
It’s a shame BrewerPaul (Paul Busman) is on vacation as he’s got the goods on this topic.
IMO with both recorders and whistles, oiling more than 2 - 3X / year is too much. Even when playing daily this is adequate. I’ve played recorder for 20 years, whistles for about 3 years and have some really fine hand-made instruments that have responded to this treatment. I use almond oil with a little vitamin E added to prevent spoilage. I oil the bore only and the blade but stop just short of the edge since I’ve ruined two recorders by causing the edge to swell from oil saturation. Don’t leave the oil on for more than an hour before wiping off the excess. It won’t absorb any more after that even if you leave it overnight. Warming the instrument and the oil a little first helps absorption. I use a heating pad for the instrument and a microwave for the oil. You only need it to be slightly warm to the touch, not hot. Never oil the windway. Never. And if you have a wood block/fipple, don’t oil that either. Ever. Not even the ends.
The exterior is another story. It depends on your finish. If it is lacquer, don’t do anything but wipe if off occasionally. You can actually change the size of the finger-holes if you oil them too much which will ruin the tuning. I haven’t found any exterior finish that benefits from oiling but there may be some I’m not aware of. If you use oil on shellac you may ruin the finish. I’d just leave the outside alone unless you’re a really brave soul who isn’t daunted by a complete refinish job.
Finally, stay from “bore oil”. In my experience, this is generally a compound of some kind of mineral oil and/or linseed oil. This may or may not be fine for clarinets but for an instrument with a bore as small as a recorder or whistle, linseed oil will build up enough over the years to diminish the tone, tuning and volume of the instrument. Another problem with linseed or bore oil is that it is so heavy it will penetrate the wood and trap moisture in the fibers which can then swell and cause cracking. If you don’ t believe me I will send a tenor recorder to you with the written opinion from Von Heune stating this as the reason for it’s failure. A tough lesson for a young player…me.
Wood is like a sponge. It absorbs oil to fill the voids between the wood fibers to help prevent shrinkage and cracking. But just like a sponge when its full you can not add any more oil. I live in a very humid climate and its not an issue around here as much as in dry climates. Don’t over oil the instrument unless you start to see fine cracks forming.Over oiling will mute the tone and gunk up the instrument, as you already found out… Bob.
I think there’s no harm applying a very small amount of oil to the outside of a whistle, if it’s just bare wood, to shine it up a bit. But if the instrument starts feeling waxy or oily, you’ve gone too far, imo.
For recorders, which have a wooden windway, I actually oil the windway ceiling and then polish it to a very high shine with a bit of cloth (obviously, having taken the block out first). I then replace the block after everything is completely dry and settled. This definitely improves the attack of the highest notes. I do oil the labium and its edge, and have experienced no adverse effects, but all my recorders and whistles are hardwoods, maybe instruments made of softer woods like pear would be more at risk from this. Nota bene: I do this about once a year.
I think when you first get these beautiful handmade instruments (some of them are really little jewels of craftsmanship) you tend to want to look after them a bit too much, and the result can be that you spoil them. After a while, you just play the damn things and clean them from time to time!
I’m baaaaaack…
I hate to tell you how rarely I oil my own whistles. I did them fairly often when they were new, but now it’s about once or twice a year and then very sparingly.
Wood can only absorb just so much oil, and it doesn’t evaporate appreciably. I definitely do NOT recommend oiling the windway, and only a very little bit of oil on the blade.
Glenn Schultz used to suggest that people oil their whistle when they “look dry” through the finger holes. Works for me.
I stated in my original post that I must have got some oil in the wind way and I should have finished that statement saying that the oil film caused the breath moisture to bead up which caused the excess moisture in the wind way. Cleaning with the detergent removed the oil film and now there’s no beading up of moisture.
I also stated that I always wipe the bore after playing so there can’t be too much oil on the wood, just a film of oil.
P.G. Bleazey has some interesting thoughts about oiling at his web site- http://www.bleazey.co.uk/flutecare.html#OILING
I would never let oil into the windway of a whistle because 1) they mostly have metal (and hence non-absorbant) roofs and 2) you can’t take out the block to dry/maintain the windway. Recorders are different, removing the block is a routine procedure.
As for pear, I believe it’s not as hard as blackwood or rosewood, but I may well be wrong.
In any case, my post was about how an instrument had been overoiled before I received it. It now works fine, since I scrubbed it out and cleaned it, so no trip to Mitch will be necessary. It’s a good whistle.
I forgot to mention that. I use Glenn Schultz’s combination of 5:1 LIGHT olive oil and almond oil. To prevent it turning rancid and stinking, I add a couple of drops of Vitamin E oil to the mix. You can poke a needle in Vit E capsules and squeeze the oil out. It’s an antioxidant and works very well.
I forgot to mention that. I use Glenn Schultz’s combination of 5:1 LIGHT olive oil and almond oil. To prevent it turning rancid and stinking, I add a couple of drops of Vitamin E oil to the mix. You can poke a needle in Vit E capsules and squeeze the oil out. It’s an antioxidant and works very well
I will add that to my list of oil recipes. Oil recipies can be a very cantankerous subject on every musical instrument forum. When I was a kid I would kill my instruments with kindness when it came to oils, waxes and polishes. Thankfully Im past that now… Bob.
There could be some room for discussion on this. How to be objective?
Pear is a common name and varieties of pear come from Europe (like Swiss Pear), Asia, Africa as well as North and South American.
Rosewoods also come in flavors from across the globe too, some true dalbergias and others non-dalbergia species.
And there are several varieties that take the common name blackwood, although I’ll assume we’re talking about African Balckwood or dalbergia melanoxylon here which is, hands down, one very hard wood. (Actually all the blackwoods I am familiar with rate between ~3000 to > 4000 on the Janka scale)
Swiss Pear is the type most often associated with recorders and it is very hard stuff to work. It’s nasty stuff on tool edges. That could have more to do with it’s composition than actual measured hardness.
So how do we measure it? I am assuming that we would be talking about hardness as in the Janka scale and not by specific gravity or the (green or dry) weight of the woods. So here is a listing of woods with Janka hardness measures - but remember it’s all relative anyway.
So which pearwood and which rosewood would you like to compare?
Thanks for that link, Feadoggie. I’ve just spent an hour looking up all sorts of wood (I’m that kind of geek). It looks as though most of the true rosewoods (Dalbergia) fall between 2500-3500. The only true pear (Pyrus) they have is at 1660. There are a variety of characteristics in addition to hardness that will cause woods to dull tools, require super-sharp tools, etc. I have a couple of logs of pear or plum from a tree that fell in my boss’s yard a year ago, which I’ll be turning into whistles/recorders/flutes one of these years.
I found that, as I expected, dogwood is pretty hard, toward the lower end of the rosewoods, box is in the middle of the rosewoods, while I was a little surprised that holly is pretty soft.
I have D, C, Bb, and Eb whistles in blackwood, made by Chris Abell in the 1980s and early 1990s; I have never oiled them and they are as good as new. I do swab them out after playing and have always followed that practice. None of them have ever cracked or shown any other sign of damage. I also have a more recent Abell whistle in mopane; never oiled, no cracks, good as new.
This has been a great topic, especially since I have an Oz whistle in the mail that’s expected any day now. Mitch informed me that it’s well oiled and comes wrapped in an oil cloth. He recommends almond oil with a few drops of sandalwood oil as a disinfectant.
I also play the Native American flute (NAF) and posted a question about their care on a NAF listserve. One of the key cautions brought up there was to avoid Tea Tree oil, which can prove deadly to cats and possibly other pets. Aside from oiling the instrument Tea Tree oil has been used as a disinfectant on didgeridoos (there’s a didge store that sells a little spray bottle) to be used in sharing an instrument between players. In the case of cats, they might ingest the oil following your playing, getting it on your hands and then transferring it onto their fur by petting them. So avoid Tea Tree oil, even if you don’t own a cat.
I have a wood recorder that has a lacquer exterior finish . The bore has no finish and has never been oiled. It has no cracks and has been played rarely. Do you recommend that I oil the bore and if so what type of oil should I use and if it is a special oil could you recommend where I can buy some?
Thanks,
Scottie
Yes Scottie, oil that recorder for sure. You can use regular woodwind bore oil, or any of the oils mentioned in this thread. Don’t oil the windway, and if you oil the blade area, do it very sparingly. Apply the oil, let it sit for a while, then wipe out the excess. If the bore looks like it absorbed a lot of the oil, you can re-oil it in a week or so. After that, once in a while is enough, especially if you’re not playing it a lot.
