I tried rubbing a bit of sticky violin rosin on my headjoint, to keep from sliding off the thing every 10 bars. Seems to cure it awful good.
Back in the 18th century Quantz recommended rubbing some of the powder in your wig onto the head to stop slippage, so this idea has some tradition behind it as well!
Hmm … thanks.
I’ll try this after my whistle head tenon is repaired.
It flew off the barrel the other night when I was flicking spittle.
Got a nasty dent in the brass tenon. Lucky that I have other whistle heads in the meantime. The head fit well on a certain barrel but tended to be a little loose on another.
Beeswax.
Kevin Krell
Around the embouchure or around the joint? 
I think it would work well around the embouchure . . . yes?
On the slide.
Kevin Krell
I hope this isn’t the highlight of your pedagogy, dear chap!
Is it a Rube Goldberg flute you’re playing, Kevin? Or do you have very odd bone structure?
Growing a beard would solve problems. Doesn’t work for the ladies unless they’re in the circus sideshow, or us hirsute-challenged guys.
I’ve always liked beeswax to tighten the occasionally slippery tuning slide. But in the recent spate of 100-degree weather we’ve been having here … hey! It melts!
So thanks for the tip.
And now for a really weird problem – how to reattach an entire barrel liner that decided to come out and visit while tuning one day? And of course now it just pops in and out whenever it feels like it.
I did a search, but alas. Do you know we have 44+ pages of posts that include the words barrel, liner, tuning slide, or sleeve?
Yup, I’m a spud. So that established … superglue? Shellac?
Or … Professional help?
Thanks!
cat.
Hey Cat,
I can’t help you with the tuning slide liner glue, but Kevin might not have meant slippage of the slide, but him slipping off of the headjoint. I don’t think I’d put voilin rosin on the tuning slide.
OOOH, GOOD SAVE!
You can tell what I was thinking about. My flute thanks you, as do I. 
OK, my response was incorrect for the first post, which I misread. My mouth does not slip off the headjoint. However, I have had tuning slides that move a little too freely, or leak slightly, and the beeswax makes the movement sluggish enough to keep joints from flying off. Clear, now? Reasonably proper grip should keep the headjoint from sliding on the lips, as the flute is usually pressed slightly against the area under the lip. For those with silver HJ on Boehm flutes, a postage stamp or engraving might be called for.
Kevin Krell
I’m a spud too… (or is it… dud…)
Anyway, one flute I sent back to the maker, who promptly fixed it for me for a nominal fee and sent it back posthaste…
The other flute, I received some glue and detailed instructions on how to use it.
I’ve been scared (or lazy) and the glue is as yet untouched. I can still play the flute since I put a bit of teflon tape and it’s a nice snug fit.
Anyways, I am really really happy when the flutes hold together well, aren’t you?
Mary
Aha! OK, that’s where I was.
That said … hey! GSW, you may have put us onto something anyway. Though I’ve never had much of a problem with the flute flying off my lip (8 years of marching band pretty much resolved that little issue (tho we did use postage stamps in summer, esp. on piccs)), it started me thinking.
So this morning in a fit of curiosity , I decided to try BUTB (aka Beeswax-Under-The-Blowhole) and … ya know, it might work. If nothing else it might protect the wood from chin sweat, Guiness drool, and whatnot. And it sure made my lower lip smell good.
Hmm.
Well, that’s the news from the lab. Oh, except for this tune report: how much fun IS ‘Major Harrison’s Fedora’???
And Mary 
– yeah, it’s nice when they work, isn’t it? I suspect I’ll fix mine probably about the time you do … Teflon tape’s going to be too thick, but incidentally, I have found that a little beeswax (LOOK! It’s the duct tape of the Irish flute world!) packed into the space between the liner & the barrel wood seems to work OK in a pinch … thanks for the help, though! I could well give it a shot. This poor flute’s been through so much already; it shall submit to my ministrations yet again!