I have a Swayne Low G boxwood whistle that I hadn’t played much in the last couple of years, and I took it out and played it for about a half hour the other day and put it in the whistle stand.
The next day, yesterday, there was (and is still) a seriously visible warp in the body! It totally curves, just like many of the old boxwood flutes we see on eBay.
Could I, feasibly, humidify it and try to unwarp it?
I think the answer is Yes, but I think you might
contact a maker who works with boxwood.
Ouch.
Boxwood is so prone to warping, even after it’s been well seasoned. I agree with Jim (on both points) that it may return (though partly) to it’s original shape when it been slowly re-humidified. I’d be interested to see what some makers responses would be and if anyone suggests treating it with almond oil.
Jessie, it was fine when you took it out of the case and this happened only after you left it on display? yes?
I once received a whistle from another board member that was warped when I received it. He said it didn’t have a warp when he sent it. I put it in my wooden-whistle storage bin (rubbermaid with a cigar humidifier, kept at about 60%RH), and it was straight within a couple of days. When I sold it to another board member, same thing happened – it warped during shipment, then straightened out when humidified.
I suspect the Swayne would do the same.
What are the playing characteristics of this low-G? Does it have the typical boxwood buttery sound?
Two words:
Central heating.
I predict this whistle will be a different shape in the winter with the heat on (artificially low relative humidity), compared to summer, with the heat off.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Dear Jessie,
I have a bunch of experience working boxwood and here are some comments. What I have observed is if boxwood is going to warp, there’s not much one can do about it - period. Rehumidifying it might alleviate it but chances are it will warp back. This is where the wood wants to be - period. If it still works, then accept it - whereas any attempts to wrangle it back to straight may damage the instrument.
The best thing to do is accept it, unless it affects the playing qualities of the instrument. On flutes, a little warpage actually does some good for the tone, which is why some of the old flutes sound as well as they do - the noncircular bore is the key. But I have also had the experience of a music shop leaving a boxwood flute in a dry case above a heater and the thing now looks like a banana. Amazingly, the owner of this flute, living in Wales, still plays it and enjoys it immensely and continues to call it his “Banana Flute”! On whistles, perhaps Mr. Swayne could touch up the voicing and tuning if that has been affected. But as long as the instrument is basically sound, think of the warping as “character”!
There are methods that violin bow makers use to warp wood back to straight, of wetting and heating the wood over the flame of an alcohol lamp. They are doing this in pernambuco or snakewood. But this is done in a fairly narrow rod, not in a tubular structure. I’d be curious to hear if anyone has ever tried this method on a boxwood instrument.
Usually I see warping in boxwood immediately as I am turning a piece. If it is way too out the piece gets delegated to the factory second or prototype bin or even firewood. Sometimes this can be detected in the log before I cut it. One boatbuilder friend of mine said that he can tell if a log cut in half and cured (the method used on most of my box) is going to warp in use by the direction it initially twists as drying. The ones that twist to the right as you look down the plane surface are fine. The ones that twist to the left are suspect and should be rendered into shorter objects like caps, lower middle joints and footjoints. I’ve found this to be true.
(No political overtones implied here! As political things go I twist much more to the left, but am very conservative when it comes to cutting boxwood!).
Casey
www.caseyburnsflutes.com
Right.
Thanks for the advice, guys. Thank you very much for the information on boxwood, Casey! The curve IS kind of cute. 
The warp doesn’t have any effect on the playability or tone.
The Swayne Low G (and other Swaynes) are very loud and the holes are small. The bore is long. The design and tone remind me a bit of recorders. The first octave is beautiful, but the second is kind of screechy. I was wondering if playing it in would improve its tone in the upper octave, so I have been playing it.
Darn heat! (Knock wood. I don’t want the boiler to break this winter!)
I’ve heard that boxwood grows on hillsides,
and consequently one side is compressed,
the uphill side, and decompresses under
the right conditions, FWIW–a pretty theory,
anyhow.
I’ve heard that boxwood grows on hillsides,
and consequently one side is compressed,
the uphill side, and decompresses under
the right conditions, FWIW–a pretty theory,
anyhow.
I’m cross posting my reply from the flute forum for the benefit of whistle folks who might otherwise miss it:
My Boxwood Rose whistle always straightened out when I would rehumidify it in the tupperware container, although the windway never returned to normal and it remains unplayable 
I imagine your whistle will be fine once it gets back to the proper moisture content. If you use a sealed (tupperware type) container, just be certain to open it for a moment, daily, to air it out - my boxwood rose developed some discoloration (dark colored streaks) due, I believe, to mold taking hold when I had it sealed up for a long period.
Good luck
Loren
I put the whistle back into the humidified trunk where I keep my instruments. I’ll see what it looks like tomorrow.
Speaking of trunk. If a whistle is made from a diagonal branch on a tree, it can be prone to warping. The wood cells develop in the branch in a way to deal with gravity.
It’s best for a piece of wood to come from the trunk where it is hopefully growing straight.
Isn’t boxwood is more of a shrub/bush rather than a hearty tree?
http://www.freeplants.com/boxwood_propagation_and_care.htm
http://www.bindingstevens.com/Boxwood.htm
http://www.daylily-garden-perennials.com/boxwood.html
This might account for some of the stresses (and resiliency) that branches less than 3" in diameter may encounter.
European boxwood (at the bottom of the page) shows thicker much straighter logs, around 8" in diameter:
http://www.righteouswoods.net/specials.html
FWIW-- I had one piece of Olivewood warp once I finished a whistle. It did not make much of a difference at all. You could only really notice it if you laid the whistle on a table and rolled it-- one end wobbled up and down.
OK, let’s see if I can get myself into all sorts of trouble, ready? OKay..moth..OPEN!
Heh..I believe in taking good care of one’s instruments, but I’ve seen some examples where one can just go TOO FAR. We can’t live in a controlled climate world, i.e. like the bubble boy. I for one live in a rather rough climate on folk instruments (Minnesota). And yet, mine seem to do ok. You just have to be willing to live with some things. Ferrules fall off, reeds need tweaking, joints need hemping..etc.
Antecdote#1
Well, anyways…I’m with Casey on the boxwood.I had made myself a LOVELY chanter from eng. box. and it had done quite well for the first 6 months of it’s life…UNTIL…SPROING! I humidified it, and it straightened…a few hours out of the box and..SPROING…well! That was no good..I can’t play it in the BOX! I tried another trick to un-bend it…(by the way, it was still playing PERFECTLY well across both octaves..no tuning or response problems) This trick proved not only unsuccessful..but I broke the chanter…grrr..it now hangs in the shop of what NOT to do.
Antecdote#2
A C&F board member (to remain nameless - and I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing this story ) decided that it would be best, following the advice of the piping community and his peers, to humidify his pipecase. As it turns out, the pipes suffered from a SEVERE case of the bananas. Chanter, drones, regs..badly warped AND affecting the tuning of the instrument…
…here ya go Casey..this trick actually worked..WELL!
I was spending some time with a friend steam bending some ash staves to make lacross sticks, snowshoes etc. when it struck me…HMM…yep, you got it. I carefully steamed the bent portion of the chanter and with a rather "Iron Maiden"ish (torture device, not the band) gizmo I managed to gently unbend the chanter without any surface blemishes . 1 week running and it remains straight…NOW, on to the regs…ugh!
..And yet, I’ve played chanters from the 18th century made from boxwood that are straight as a laser beam!
Casey, how are you seasoning your boxwood billets???
God Bless,
David
Perhaps is should be called Bananawood instead of boxwood.
Tony, there are many sub-spicies of boxwood. I use to do ground cover ID for the USFS and would see wild dwarf boxwood everywhere (pachistima myrsinites). It’s a small shrub anywhere from 12-48" somewhat like sagebrush. In Europe the dwarf variety (Buxus suffruticosa) and (buxus sempervirens rotundifolia) are also small. The domestic varieties in the US are everywhere around people’s houses and yards, growing as a trimmed hedge up to 4-6’ high and shaped in artistic ways. Others used in bonsai.
The old English Boxwood (buxus sempervirens) used for instruments, etc., is a huge evergreen shrub-tree 12-25’ high that grows in southern Europe and the middle east. It can have a lifespan of up to 600 yrs. in the right conditions (it doesn’t like damp soil).
Boxwood dries very slowly (about 1 cm per year.) Some used to make recorders and flutes have dried for up to 15 years. The wood has been highly prized by sculptors and woodworkers since it can be worked with great precision (its fine grain could be compared to ivory.) I read on one web site that in the Middle Ages boxwood was used to create templates with complicated forms. These were then used to hammer gold or silversmith pieces.
It’s probably hard to find straight trunks, which only grow about 1" in diam. in the first 15 yrs. I doubt if it has branches large enough to be useful for instruments.
‘Fastagiata’ is a narrow conical form of English boxwood which will eventually grow to 12’ tall and 5’ wide. Sempervirens in Latin means “always green”. Fastigiate means “upward branching”.
I highly suspect the problem is that many makers don’t season their Boxwood long enough and/or to a low enough moisture content. I suspect this is more of a problem in places where the RH stays high more or less year round - Ireland, England, etc… the pacific northwest…
Casey, mind if I ask how long you typically season your Boxwood? How long in billet form, how long after rough turning and drilling the pilot hole, etc? Do you purchase kiln dried Box?
Loren
Lorenzo, thanks for the information… you always dig up some great facts.
Loren, that’s a good question that may have more importance than ‘initial seasoning’ How much additional seasoning is allocated between operations.
This partly explains why makers have long wait times. It’s not so much their backlog of work but rather the time needed for wood to stabilize due to relief of internal stresses as it’s being worked.