my first flute seems to be losing a lot of the thread between the head joing and the body. it’s very loose and can almost fall off by itself 
the quality and “reedy-ness” of the tone is heading downwards…is it possible that air is leaking out between the head joint and the body? how can i fix it? 
any ideas are appreciated!!
Oh, dear! Dry those sniffles! Nothing awful has happened!
Yes, it’s possible that air is leaking. Fortunately, thread lappings are easily wrapped and/or replaced with easily-available materials!
Thanks to Jayhawk for this website: http://www.flutes.fsbusiness.co.uk/tenon.html
If your thread isn’t shredded, see if you can’t just unwind it a bit and rewrap it, but not too tightly, especially if your flute is wooden. You can supplement it with a little dental floss or DMC embroidery floss if need be. You don’t want the joint too tight, though.
Then, use a little grease on it. Just about anything will do, but I like BolWax, which is the lovely stuff plumbers use between the bottom of a toilet and the pipe in the floor. That beeswax-looking ring thing. It’s made from nontoxic industrial-strength petroleum jelly, for the most part.
It won’t liquify or dry out, and does a really good air-tight seal. Unless Canadian plumbing is different, you should be able to get a whole ring at your home maintenance store for a dollar or two. It is easily removed from your threads with a little flute oil (almond, flaxseed, whatever).
Some people here have mentioned making their own joint grease from beeswax and petroleum jelly, and others use commercial products, but I like BolWax for my threaded joints. If you put it in a cute little container, no one will ever know your secret. 
Ah, you beat me to posting the link! I actually owe that dog of a websurfer Glauber for pointing it out in the past.
The link mentions gluing down the thread (I use dental floss on both my wood and delrin flutes), but you really don’t need to do that. You can lay a line of thread lengthwise in the channel where your thread goes and simply wrap the thread tightly around that piece - this will hold it in place.
It might take a time or two to get it right, but it’s not too hard.
Eric
-I use blue Swix cross country/nordic ski wax as it goes on easily at room temperature but isn’t as goopy as red wax. -Plus it works on fine grained snow at -3C/-8C for ski-in sessions. 
thanks for your help guys! much appreciated 
Forgive me for asking . . . though I’ve had the fine experience of waxing skis, my recollection of this process seems to have involved applying heat to melt the wax onto the ski. At least, the kind I used did.
Can you explain how you would use blue Swix on a flute? My tuning slide is supposed to be ski-waxed, but I’m still clueless about the methodology. I’m sure that having a go at it with the steam iron is not such a good thing . . .
Thanks!
i once heard to use vaseline…does this work??
I think it does, but Casey Burns recommends that this particular slide – they’re not all exactly alike, it seems – be ski waxed. Red ski wax, in fact.
-No ironing or heat needed to apply xc ski wax to tenon or slide. -Just peel back the foil wax wrapper and apply the cylinder of wax crayon-style to the outside diameter (the male component as it were) of the inner slide pipe section you have already removed from its sleeve in the short barrel section of the headjoint. Apply wax sparingly to the outside of this pipe which is affixed permanently within the section with the embouchure, then reassemble the two headjoint sections. The wax will provide “stiction” to the slide and keep it where set for tuning.
-If the slide moves too easily after reassembly just add a little more wax. It won’t require much- some thin lengthwise swipes ought to do it. You can rotate the short barrel slide section gently around the inserted headjoint pipe when reassembled to even out the wax coat, but don’t force it. Avoid gooping wax on in lumps as its overkill and will make slide function lumpy instead of smooth.
-This works well with my Casey Burns flute’s slide, but the slide details of other makers’ flutes could vary. You might want to contact your flute’s maker for advice on it.
-Tenon threads can also be waxed crayon-style which will snug the fit some without rewrapping tenon threads. A quick trick when you don’t have wax is to run a fingernail lengthwise up and down the thread and serrate it lightly all around. This will often snug the fit adequately until you have a chance to rewrap the tenon threading later or wax as needed. Avoid storing the headjoint sections
apart as dust and grit can enter the slide. Likewise avoid dirt and grit on the slide sections when they’re apart for service. (or any time really)
-Good luck with it-
Denial floss.
You’ll be surprised how well it works.
I just put in a new toilet if anybody wants some of the wax I took out. What I have found the best is to unroll 20 cm or so of 1 cm wide plumber’s teflon tape. Then split it into a 1/2 cm by 20 cm strip. Then wrap it over the thread only one layer thick, no overlap. This holds down the thread and slicks it as good as grease.
Nelson