Well, Ive got a Cooperman Stoney Creek model Fife… I really like this fife, its got very good volume and is easy to play. The Fife is made out of some very nice Cocobola wood. Now what I don’t like about this fife is the shiny varnish finish. I would like to remove it and have it replaced with a low lustre finish maybe tung oil or something like that. Of note Ive played several other Stoney Creek Fifes that have had a tung Oil finish and they did not sound near as nice…do you think that was just coincidence? or do you think the varnish actually helped the sound of my Fife
That said would you remove the varnish, leave it, or what. I’m not great with projects like that, so should I leave it up to a Flute maker to do this? 
You can use fine steel wool, I have the 000. The finish on a flute has no effect as far as I know 
just tried the steel wool and it worked very well
Ben, the steel wool will do the job, but might dull the shine on the fittings at the ends, which look to be highly polished per website photos. You might try a commercial varnish remover near those. But if it were me, I’d use acetone first and see if that does it. Of the organic solvents, it’s one of the least toxic, but you’d want to do this outdoors of course.
I was easily able to steel wool the body of the Fife without getting the ferrules. This really worked very well , the Fife now has the low Luster. Also with the low luster the grain of the Cocobola Wood can be seen much better. The Fife also has a softer feel to it than before. Thanks Lorenzo and Woodfluter for the tips!
To late to help now, but when using abrasives caution must be taken around the edges of the holes to prevent rounding off the corners.
Interesting choice of fife. Any reason you went with a narrow bore.
Got the Stoney Creek years back. I had seen one played by a guy up around Wmsbrg and liked the looks of it.
Its a pretty nice sounding Fife with a strong upper range and OK lower.
Ive got a model F that I use with a F&D Group I play with from time to time. I don’t like the sound of the model F half as much.
But you know its all what you get used to, If I had about 2 dozen Fifes on a table that I could try out, I suppose I might find another that I like better.
Unlike the Irish Flute world where there are any number of really great Makers I don’t see that in the Fife world, but thats just me saying this and I’m sure there are other Fifers on this board that would say that’s not so