Advice please: Refurbishing an old keyed wood flute: It needs new pads. Best source to get them? Should I uses shellac to put them in or are there easier methods these days? Also, the head joint has a narrow crack, but the head is brass lined so I don’t think the crack really matters? I don’t know that I could even fit a piece of typing paper into the crack and since it’s brass lined, maybe it doesn’t make any difference?
I have played sax since I was a kid, so a long time, and in my 20’s started playing flute at the Ren Fair, but mostly silver flute. In the last 7 years or so I have been getting into wood flute and tin whistle, playing some Irish, Scottish, English and French tunes, sometimes with my daughter Pema (16) who is a good fiddle player, and Angela my wife/her mom who is a good guitar and bodhran player as well as flute and we all sing. Hoping to form a family band! We are about 90% of the way to finishing building our own house. 8 days ago I fell off a scaffold and broke my heel. Surgery this Thursday. This gives me some down time and I would like to refurbish this unmarked keyed D flute I found not long ago. I’m pretty handy and have done mid scale maintenance on my saxes and some clarinets and flutes, so I figure I can likely make this one play pretty well.
(It actually plays ok right now, but only because I have one of the upper toneholes covered in tape!)
Right now I play on a Violet Rosewood Tony Dixon low D that’s about 20 years old, and a Sindt D whistle. Both lovely instruments.
Careful, this flute repair thing is a slippery slope.
Headjoint cracks can be surprisingly influential on tone, even with a lined headjoint. They typically aren’t too difficult to address, unless there is material missing, a previous poor repair, or are through the embochure. Basic process is to remove the rings, stopper assembly and liner (this is the most difficult and typically may need the application of heat). Clean, degrease and glue up the headjoint (I use steam to clean, new cyanoacrylate glue and plastic wire ties to clamp the wood). Lightly sand the inside of the headjoint until the liner is a tight slip fit when the headjoint is properly humidified (50% RH target). Reglue liner back in making sure to have the embochure opening correctly aligned with heated shellac so it can be removed in future if necessary. Reassemble and play.
I have successfully used leather clarinet pads for my repairs, but it does depend on type of key pocket. The clarinet pads work best with the flatter ones. If you have salt spoon style, you might be better off trying to make classic purse pads. I have never done that so can’t give good advice. I have heard of others successfully replacing pads with closed cell foam disks cut out and glued in place with hot glue or even carefully shaped blobs of silicone glue. Before you go to the trouble of replacing your pads I suggest you just try to reseat them. An adjustable lighter or micro torch is all you need to do that.
Thank you! I’m pretty sure the keys are “salt spoon” style, so I’ll have to see how that might go. Maybe sax pads or bass clarinet, or what I can find with a slightly taller profile. The old pads are shot for sure. Great advice on the headjoint!
You’ll need the thinnest pads you can get, even with salt spoon key cups. I’ve had the best success buying the top of the line “thin” leather pads from Prestini. Measure the diameter of the pads that you are replacing, or the cups themselves, to determine the size you need.
When you mount the pads in the key cups, melt some shellac into the key cup and float the pad on top of that, gently pressing it into place. Once the shellac has cooled and the key is remounted to the flute, heat the key cup again and let the pad float into position on the hot liquid shellac under spring tension. It will find its own position where the pad surface and sealing surface around the tone hole are aligned. You can verify that it is sealed properly using the suck test. If not, you might need to heat and float it again, or give it a little nudge one way or other if necessary.
If all is well, then when the key has cooled, take the key off again and clean up any shellac that has squeezed out from the sides of the pad, because this can interfere with the key action.
While you are doing this job it is worth carefully checking the area immediately around the keyed tone hole, where the pad seats, to make sure that isn’t damaged. If it is you’ll have to build up any nicks to create a smooth sealing surface in the same plane.
It is also worth carefully cleaning the slot in the block where the key shaft sits to make sure it isn’t catching, assuming it has block mounted keys.
Re: cracks in metal-lined wooden tubes - you cannot assume the metal means there won’t/can’t be a leak. Sometimes there isn’t (for now), but don’t count on that lasting when the flute is in use. Even the slightest leak in the headjoint has significant effects on playability. Once the wood has cracked (usually because it has shrunk with time and the metal hasn’t), the old shellac gluing them together internally may not any longer effect a full seal everywhere. Even if the crack isn’t through the embouchure hole, air can leak from between the two tubes in the embouchure hole to the crack or along the tubes to one or both ends. Systematic suck testing (remove the crown & stopper - that may well leak too, a separate issue) will show whether there’s a leak and help identify where.
From the photograph it appears that you have a fairly standard “Nach-Meyer” German flute. It looks like it is already missing a ring at the tuning slide joint and there is a crack in the barrel. The headjoint crack does not show in the photo. If the crack you are concerned with is in the barrel, it should be even easier to repair as you don’t have to worry about damage to the critical embochure hole or removing the stopper. Does the tuning slide function smoothly? If so you should be able to use essentially the same procedure I outlined earlier.
Thanks. I had a heckuva time figuring out how to post a photo. There is a crack in the headjoint also, but it is much more closed than the barrel crack, and is opposite the embouchure. Yes indeed it is missing the tuning slide joint ring. The tuning slide does function smoothly.
