What, if any, lube goes between the head and body of my Sindts? I’ve been on a cleaning jag lately and cleaned all the growing things out of my whistles. I wonder if I have to re-lube the heads now.
I don’t think John uses anything-- just a nice, close fit.
Susato recommend cork wax for their tunables. but always check with the manufacturer of the whistle in question.
If it really is a very close fit as brewerpaul suggested you may not want to use anything. I gummed up a piece of equipment once in which a sleeve had to move smoothly along a rod. The sleeve seemed to be dragging so I put some fine oil on it and it just got worse. All it needed was to be kept very clean all the time with some solvent. I used alcohol.
Steve
I would recommend not sticking anything in there; a good cleaning/wiping down with quadruple ought (0000)super fine steel wool will get the job done and not cause any damage or concerns whatever. I know some cringe at the thought of this, but I’ve been using it for 10 years and it’s great.
Philo
It’s all about tolerances. Take trumpet valves. The tolerances in the valves have to “tolerate” the oil that makes the pistons move up and down. But, if dirt gets into the valves, then the valve oil will have something to gum it up, and the valves will stick. If a little oil makes your Sindt whistle move better, then use it. I have Sindts which have never had oil.
JP
Vaseline, a little.
Thanks, folks. It was just that I got cleaning, and used a bit of Dr Bronners. They are very pretty and shiny, but I got to wondering if I had removed the lube that had been there when I got the whistles. Of course, if there was never any lube to start with, then I guess I did no harm. 
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Jeff Gitchel
jeff@trainorphans.org
http://trainorphans.org
I did talk once to Ann, John Sindt’s
wife, about this. She recommended
a silicon based lubricant; vaseline
did the job for me. But perhaps
nothing is needed.
John,
Modern Trumpet valves have a hatch pattern in them that actually helps retain the oil. This week I visited Miles Trumpets http://www.milestrumpets.com/ and got to see a bell on trumpet being pounded into shape it was fascinating.
You can also use Cork Grease normally used on Clarinets for tuning slides of whistles.
The cork grease is good to have around, especially if you have some wood flutes as well.