Greetings, folks. I’ve got a flute, with a crack that I’m not sure what to do with. The problem is more than just the crack, though. Please read on:
I had the flute made for me. After approximately 5 months of ownership, the bore of the barrel started getting tighter, starting at about the same time that I started storing it in a hydration box (when the heat started activating in the house). Within just a couple more months, it got smaller than the metal ring on the end of the tenon that’s supposed to fit in it, rendering the flute useless. Over the next 8 months, I’d periodically check to see if it was going to fit again. Recently I checked it again and found that it fit together but, also that the barrel had cracked. I’m not sure what to do with it now. If I get the crack repaired, will the barrel bore start getting smaller again? Will the crack repair job itself make the barrel bore too small again? Even with the crack, the flute seems to play properly. Should I not play it without having gotten the crack repaired? I know I made a big mistake in buying a flute made in a far away country. I don’t know if it can be insured against loss or further damage which might happen whilst being sant back to the flutemaker. I live in the USA.
Hi,
The sleeve on the barrel will have to be pulled and re-bored. The socket needs to be re-bored also, to fit the tenon… This was probably caused by the wood not being properly seasoned before building the flute.
Did you follow the “break-in period” advice and maintenance procedures provided by the flutemaker? Have you talked to the flutemaker? What have they told you?
Yes, first step, regardless of where they are located relative to you, is to discuss it with the maker (assuming s/he’s alive…). Assuming that you were following any recommendations they gave you on care, most reputable makers of decent quality instruments would very likely want to have it back, at least to inspect, and might well repair or replace it, perhaps only charging you for doing so if there is clear evidence of your contributory negligence. Talk to them!
if the “hydration box” was working then the ring wouldn’t have gotten loose and fallen off
if a ring gets loose and falls off the flute is going to crack soon. (full stop)
Either spit it for kindling or send it out to be repaired while you learn how to take care of it or find a buyer.
do you play flute? if so ya might want to by delron.
I could be wrong, but I think you may have misread him there, Denny. He said the metal ring on the end of the tenon. I take it that he means that the tenon on his flute has a silver ring. This would be the bit on the top of the body that slides into the barrel when putting the flute together, and I read it that the barrel bore had shrunk so that the tenon didn’t fit any more, as opposed to any rings falling off. It could be that the hydration box was working a bit too well …
Sounds to me that you might have overdone the humidification at first, causing the barrel wood to expand. Because the ring stops it from expanding outwards, it presumably expanded inwards, to the point where the body tenon ring could no longer enter the socket. At this point I assume you stopped humidifying, and the barrel wood went back to normal, but then shrunk enough to crack, presumably when it attempted to shrink onto the barrel liner tube.
So it sounds like your assumption that the flute would require humidification was right, but your initial amount was too much. You haven’t told us where you are, and where the flute came from, so that’s about all we can conjecture for the moment.
If it’s a cheap flute, it might not be worth worrying about - just play it until it gives trouble and fix it or replace it at that point. If however it’s a good flute (ie one by a well-known maker) you should certainly try to have it repaired properly. There might be some argument to having a local maker redo the barrel, using the same hardware. If the wood is well seasoned to your locale, it should give much less trouble in future.
Keep in mind whatever applied to the barrel will apply to the head, as it is metal lined also. So you may still need to humidify the head in future dry seasons.
I’d remind people that humidification happens very quickly, and some kind of measurement (eg a hygrometer kept in the box) is important.
Hi folks,
For what its worth : I live in Belgium so humidity is always around 70% I guess so the remark on where you live is just. If you live in Texas, flutes are going to behave different than in Mid-Euro. I have electrical heating and store the flute(s) in a drawer in the room and until now no problem. I think seasoning is the key word here. If you take in account what we sometimes do with our flutes without seeing cracks I’m amazed. We take 'em out in winter, then enter moisty, warm and crowded pubs. Sometimes play them cold, then put them on a table for half an hour letting them cool down and then play again. I think they can have a lot! Only thing I never do is leave them in the sunshine while playing outside, think this is lethal. I think the example here is an exception or am I wrong? All the best,
Ronnie
ya…could be! 