Olwell birthday flute now on E-bay: “a Pratten model in cocus wood with 6 keys and wide rings, all fittings in sterling silver.”
Starting bid: (37,840 Swedish crowns) (4093 euros) (£3,201) ($4,650.00)
It looks like a decent flute to start with 
Lovely flute. I agree with Olwell regarding the tonal quality of Cocus. Such a shame I had to give my Cocus Olwell Pratten up due to allergies 
Someone is going to get a crazy good flute.
Acknowledging that trying to talk about tonal qualities is difficult in that there are personally different perceptions of the meanings of words commonly used to do so, Olwell’s choice of terms to describe the tonal qualities of cocuswood are rather contrary to my expectations. Given that I am sceptical about materials having significant tonal effects in flutes, my subjective experience of cocus would lead me to use words like “warm, rich, dark”, not “brittle and glass-like”!
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So you do believe you can hear “some” difference between at least some woods? If the answer, for you is “yes” then:
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Would you say cocus sounds (using your words) “warm, rich, dark” when compared with Blackwood? When compared with Boxwood?
I see (hear) where Patrick is coming from with his description - it’s intended to be comparative and relative to Blackwood and Boxwood, as opposed to being a pure, stand alone, description of the sound. This is similar to how one would briefly describe subtle differences in flavor or color to someone already familiar with food, wine and art/painting.
To me, cocus does have a smoother, “glassier” sound - brighter and more cutting (the “brittle”, I believe, in Patrick’s description), with a perceived faster transient response (the smoother part of my description, and the “Glassy” in Patrick’s ) - and this all relative to Blackwood, which Pat references. Also holds true to a greater degree with relation to Boxwood and most, but perhaps not all, Rosewoods.
FWIW, I believe the combination of the mass of the wood and smoothness of (bore) finish the wood will take, are the primary influences on these tonal differences between woods. I had literally thousands of opportunities with new instruments and used instruments to observe how tone varied to from one wood to another and also before and after sanding bores.
And the Olwell went for US $7,457.60.
I think last year the winning bit was about US $10.000.
S.
2014 OO#1221 Pratten Blackwood & silver 6K
US $9,353.10
2015 OO#1268 Nicholson model cocus 6K
US $11,100.00
2016 OO#1300 Pratten cocus 6K
US $7,457.60
Interesting to see that they appear to make about 45 flutes a year.
It was curious to see this year’s sale to end significantly lower than the previous two years and for the premium Cocus wood 