Howdy all,
I am currently playing an old german flute from somewhere around in the mid to latter 1800’s (I haven’t been able to identify the maker yet). I just acquired the flute about a month ago and I have noticed a small crack in the top of the first joint of the first section (the first section with finger holes, not the head joint). The crack starts above the cork, and extends about an inch down inside the flute.
On the outside of the flute, the crack is only visible just above the cork and no where else. The rest of the crack can only be seen by looking inside the bore. My question is, what steps should I take it keep this crack from extending. It doesn’t affect the play of the flute now, so I want to prevent that from ever happening.
Also, since this is an old flute, what are the chances that the crack is also old and there for maybe stabilized, in which case it might not crack any further?
You can always get it repaired by a pro, then you don’t need to worry. Terry McGee does a nice job on repairs.
There are a lot of experts on things like this on the board, so maybe one of them will jump in and correct me (or support me), but I’d use crazy glue to seal the crack inside the bore. It’s good that except for the tenon end it doesn’t go all the way through, but filling the crack inside the bore with several small amounts of crazy glue is easy to do. I’d probably also fill the area that shows on the outside of the tenon, too just so water doesn’t get in there and widen the crack.
I’ve done that on two small cracks on my old german anonymous flute and they’re doing fine - one did take two tries to get it completely sealed.
Granted, the repairs are only about a month old, but from what I’ve read they should hold fine. I think the key is keeping the moisture out of the cracked area which will lead to the crack expanding…plus the crazy glue fills the area as well. With yours being out of site, cosmetics won’t be an issue.
Eric