I know i’m going to get slap on the wrist for asking this, but is there such a thing as a pearwood flute? I’ve seen Renaissance flutes and recorders in pearwood, but never an Irish flute. Then again, perhaps the sound wouldn’t be right. Does such a beast exist?
I think I have seen some fruit wood instruments and maybe a flute or two. Because of the quality of the wood grain, I think that they are usually sealed with something like wax or a hardening oil. I think that it would be very rare to find one while other woods are available.
…but that is a very fuzzy memory and could be wrong.
Ralph Sweet made a few experiments back in the day in what might have been seen as ‘furniture’ woods. My first flute was a Sweetheart in walnut that I wish I still had, and if I’m remembering correctly he’d also tried maple and cherry. maple might even have been a regular production item. I think in general that the fruitwoods* aren’t as close-grained as box, and that no temperate wood can compete with tropical hardwoods for density or impermeability (if it wasn’t a word before, it is now!). However, in the absence of tropical wood, fruitwoods have a long history with European woodwinds of the baroque era and earlier. In our terms, that means recorders more often that transverse flutes. Apricot, for instance, is still the preferred wood for a Duduk.
As for the sound, that’s unlikely to be much affected. As we know, it’s the shape that matters, not the material. With enough oiling, and perhaps substantial pore-filling with Cyanoacrylate, any wood could make an acceptable flute. It’s how easy it is to work, how much work it is to make it work, and (as with boxwood) how it behaves wrt warping, etc., that matters.
*Fruitood = apple, cherry, pear, apricot, etc. They’re all fairly closely related, and most have similar characteristics.
Maple, Cherry, Walnut & Rosewood are listed for D flutes
Maple, Cherry & Rosewood for Eb
Rosewood for C
Rosewood comes w/Silver rings fer $200 more
As ID alluded, recorders made from pearwood or fruitwood are generally soaked in paraffin. The Sweets treat their flutes made from less-dense wood (walnut, cherry, apple, and padouk that I know of) with tung oil.
The other thing about the less-dense woods is how smooth the bore and blow-edge can be made. One can drop a whole lotta coin on a pearwood recorder, so I suspect that someone who understands the wood could make a fine flute from it.
just don’t leave a pearwood recorder in the sun. or any other wooden insrument
treated with wax
by the way, the sweetheart flutes of these different woods (I’ve played
rosewood, maple, cherry, quite a number of them) have distinctively different sounds.
Favorite is cherry. Heaven knows why and it ain’t telling.
I’m reluctant to confess owning a recorder in this forum 
, but I’ve had a beautiful cherry wood soprano recorder since the '60s. I’ve carried it from state to state with virtually no care (and only very occasional tooting), and it looks and sounds great.
I got a walnut C whistle when Ralph was selling his shopworn stuff this past holiday time, and it’s really nice–looks beautiful. Sounds a bit different, maybe (God forbid) a bit more “record-ish” than differently built Irish wooden whistles. But it’s an extremely nice instrument, imho.
And as a great leap of faith or something (and a gift to myself for the holidays), at the same sale, I picked up a shopworn macassar ebony flute from Ralph. That’s a very hard wood (unlike the fruitwoods that are the main topic). It’s used in some high end guitars that I’ve seen and I think it’s beautiful so I decided to go for it. At this point, I like it very much too. It’s my only Sweet flute, so I can’t compare it with other woods in Ralph’s style. It’s maybe a little less volume on the low D than some, though not bad at all. Ralph said they only made a few and I guess it wasn’t that practical to use from the maker’s perspective. But dang, it’s a beautiful piece of former tree, and plays and sounds fine to me!
Best,
Jaydoc
I also own a recorder 
It is a Dolmetsch Soprano made from pearwood in the late sixties. It is an outstanding instrument with a marvelous singing voice. The wood is very finely grained, but somewhat soft in comparison to tropical woods. The difficulty with pearwood is in obtaining instrument grade pieces of sufficient size. It is possible, but difficult.
Having turned Ebony, I found it extremely fine grained and capable of attaining an extremely fine finish. . .but fragile with a distressing tendency to ‘shatter’ or fragment. When it breaks in this fashion the surface of the fragments almost appear like soft coal. . .
I believe one of the drawbacks to Ebony in woodwinds is its tendency to warp, and poor rot resistance. Good luck with that Sweet flute. I would keep it well oiled.
Cheers,
Bob
Thank you Bob. I do oil it, but will redouble my efforts! Unfortunately I don’t have a case for this one, but I keep the head joint in a plastic container with a bit of wet spunge (it’s dry here in L.a.). I try to regularly oil all my wooden whistles/flutes with almond oil (but have been inattendant to my beloved old recorder). Dang, I hope it doesn’t explode on me!
Best,
Jayd
If it’s one of Sweet’s tuning slideless models, you’re not in that much danger, because all the parts expand and contract together. It’s when changeable wood is pressing against unchanging metal that the trouble starts.
Sweet flutes are made not to need much oiling. Tung oil soaking seals the bore.
If you oil at all, a little oiling goes a long way. Overoiling can be a problem
and isn’t going to help anything.
If you have any questions, best to talk to Ralph as to what
the flute requires. Generally very tough beasties.
I’ve played a pearwood flute owned by a friend of mine, nice flute, but seems to have a less “solid” sound than blackwood or rosewood.
it was made by an italian (who knows) windwood maker.
I’ve also some confidence with Orange wood… very high density, solid and great bright colour…
it could be really a good wood for a flute (better than boxwood, far better than pearwood)…
Mollenhauer makes a piccolo (they call it a Picco Flute) out of Pearwood:
It’s rather “recorderish”.
rather 
Do they offer two head joints? 
The Picco flute is intended as a transitional instrument from recorder to transverse flute for young players. It is essentially a soprano recorder body with a transverse flute headjoint. In spite of its extremely low price, it is nicely crafted and plays very well. It is the perfect choice for a recorder player wanting an inexpensive introduction to renaissance and baroque flute playing.
They don’t seem to have a combo, but it does look like it is about the same design. Key of c’’ and two piece instead of 3, so no pinky adjustment. I wonder if it has a L thumb hole.
I may be incorrect, but I have a vague memory of encountering a Dominic Allan flute made of pearwood, though I didn’t play it as I had a bit of a cold at the time. PM bowjest, as it was one of a few he had on loan from Dominic at them time.
Andrew.
Boaz Berney makes some of his Renaissance flutes in pear, as well as maple, cherry and plum.
http://berneyflutes.com/pages/02flutes/models/renaiss_schnitzer.html
I have a theory (but no obvious way to prove it!) that flute makers have always preferred to use the finest and hardest timbers they had access to and that their available technology allowed them to work. So, in the middle ages, that was the fruitwoods, later came boxwood (it was always there, but presumably too hard to work earlier), then with the Empire came Ebony from the East Indies, then Cocus from the West Indies, then Blackwood from Africa. Since then, we’ve found other timbers with similar qualities, such as mopane from Africa, and a number of Australian woods.
We see similar preferences in the synthetics, with ebonite and then Delrin both hard and fine.
This all seems to fit with making the “best container for air” we can - avoiding porosity, roughness and flexing - weaknesses that would rob energy out of the vibrating air column.
As we know, scientists and musicians have not always been in agreement on the topic of the significance of body materials. Scientists contend that the material makes no difference, and the recent study by Gregor I refer to in http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/FluteTone-Intro.htm proves that to my satisfaction.
My theory is though that this insignificance of materials only kicks in once you have achieved a “good enough container for air”. That leaves many of the materials mentioned above as considerably less than perfect and I suspect that’s where we’ll find our answers.
Being “less than perfect” air containers doesn’t necessarily equate to making a less attractive flute; delrin is more “perfect” than blackwood but I still prefer blackwood for instance. Boxwood is less “perfect” than blackwood, but that readily provable fact doesn’t seem to be keeping Chris Norman or Catherine McEvoy awake at nights.
I have planned to look into this issue thoroughly in the Flute Tone Investigations series (http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/FluteTone-Picklist_of_Potential_Investigations.htm. This should prove more than interesting - I suggest it might be the key to reconciling musicians’ and scientists’ views on the topic.
From the perspective of a metal flute researcher, this would be a “reductio ad absurdum” exercise - who in their right mind would play a flute made from a less-than-perfect material? Um, that would be us.
Work towards setting up for the investigations program is progressing well. The stereo zoom microscope, camera and other accessories are in. I pick up the new “rigged for silent running” computer on Monday. Work continues on the control unit to facilitate all the measurements. All getting a bit exciting!
Terry
Or in your car. Someone gave me a recorder once and I left it in my truck and when I went to take it out of its box, it was all covered in wax pooled on the bottom side. I spent a considerable amount of time scraping it off. It looks ok now, but it’s really hard to play. I’ve always wondered if that was because I melted it.