Hi, I am living in northern Germany, where we are now (and usually..) having around 20 C and - humidity over 60%.
next week I am going to Caceres in Spain for an Irish music festival where I will probably play a lot in sessions. The weather is going to be very hot with 34 C or even more! And a humidity of only %.
I never took a wooden flute to such a Mediterranean climate and I have worries my flute might crack or warp.
I have two flutes and wanted to ask you, I you can recommend me, which one might have less problems with the weather:
The first is a Lejeune Pratten in Blackwood with a fully lined head. The other one is a Sam Murray in boxwood with a half lined head (and it’s straight ). I have only had that one for the last 6 weeks or so. So I am sol getting to know it.
That the boxwood flute tends to „drink“ water and oil a lot more than my Blackwood flute is very noticeable for me. I have heard many stories about warping boxwood flutes and I saw many cracked flutes with fully lined headjoints.
Do you think it’s mich more risky to bring one or the other with me? How would you prepare a flute for such changes in conditions? Oiling before? Do you think there is something I should do with the flute over in Spain?
If it were me, I’d take the Blackwood flute - well not really because I’m allergic, but if I weren’t allergic… . If you are going to be playing a lot, 2 or more hours a day, the boxwood flute is likely to swell to the point where the top joint may get stuck and you can’t take it apart. This has happened to me on multiple occasions and it can take a day or two for the flute to dry out enough to disassemble.
Conversely the blackwood flute won’t swell anywhere near as much and the lower humidity in your destination city won’t be dangerous if you are playing the flute a lot, just swab it out after playing and keep it in the case when not in use. The blackwood flute should be fine, just don’t leave it sitting out in direct sunlight (cased or not), and don’t leave it in a hot car. Otherwise, you should be good to go, Have fun!
Can’t comment on boxwood but my blackwood Aebi (fully lined headjoint) spent 11 years with me in Andalucia where temperatures went well above 34 C at times and it was very-very dry.
All I can report is I had to add extra layers to the thread lappings because the wood was constantly in its shrunk state. Be prepared to do that. I used teflon tape for that, the type that plumbers use, it’s very thin (0.1 mm) and easily removed when not needed any more.
One of the rings fell off the foot joint once for the same reason of the wood being shrunk. You might see that even after playing for an hour or so, the inside of the instrument remains completely dry. I kept a humidifier in the flute case and I oiled the instrument monthly, hoping it might stop humidity leaving the wood as well as moisture entering it. No cracks.
I don’t have first-hand experience with boxwood either, having never owned such a flute. But I heard it is more sensitive to changes in humidity than blackwood. So you probably shouldn’t make this flute travel too much if you can avoid it.
My blackwood flute (6 keys and fully lined head) lived with me in Colorado for almost 4 years, where it was very dry most of the time. This flute and I have now lived in Sweden for almost 6 years, where the winter is very dry. Here are some tips from this ongoing experience:
Get a few hygrometers like this one (€5 from Thomann). This is not an affiliated link, I get nothing if you buy this. There are other models on this store. It’s simply the one I have been using, and recommend because it’s cheap enough that you can get a bunch and put them everywhere practical (in the travel case, in the storage case, in the rooms where you keep and play your flute, etc.), and it works with no battery. It is probably not the most accurate, but it doesn’t matter: you don’t need to know the relative humidity exactly, only whether current conditions are in the safe range (40 to 70% RH marked on this one), and you also need to get a sense for how the relative humidity varies where you are.
At home and when not in use, I keep the flute in a transparent plastic box with one hygrometer inside the box and one outside. So I can see easily if the flute is at a safe relative humidity, and I know how dry the room is in comparison. The lid is not air-tight, I simply leave it on without latching the clips (even latched it’s not completely air-tight because there is no rubber seal between the lid and box). I keep the inside of the box at a safe relative humidity for the flute simply by leaving a small piece of wet paper towel in the box (not directly touching the flute of course). With a storage setup like this one, it is also useful to monitor how long the relative humidity stays within the safe range inside the box when you are not introducing new humidity. With the box I have and the dryness of my apartment at its worst in winter, I know that placing a new wet paper towel in the box buys me at least two weeks before the inside of the box becomes dangerously dry. This is good to know when leaving the flute at home and traveling.
When traveling with the flute, I check what the relative humidity is likely to be at the given destination and season. If it’s humid, nothing to worry about, but I still take a hygrometer with me. If it’s likely to be dry, then for transport I take my usual travel case with a piece of wet paper towel inside and of course a hygrometer. For storage, I take a ziploc bag large enough to contain all of the flute pieces, a hygrometer and a small piece of wet paper towel: this is basically a portable version of the plastic box setup I have at home.
You don’t need very much water in that paper towel to raise the relative humidity in the storage container (box or ziploc bag), so it doesn’t need to drip.
Especially in warm temperatures, you should not keep the flute in such humid storage for extended periods of time, because humidity + warmth = mold. This is a good motivation for playing a bit every day, so you air out the flute and its storage container regularly. In dry but cold conditions this is rarely a problem. Where I live now, the indoor temperature in the apartment building is maintained around 20°C in winter, and I have never seen mold even if I leave the flute in its box with humidification for two weeks (for example when traveling without it).
Like others said, pay attention to the rings: a loose ring is an early sign of wood shrinking due to dry conditions. Don’t panic if it happens, but make sure you place the flute in humid conditions as soon as you get the chance.
Oiling the wood slows down water exchange with the surrounding air. If you know your flute is “healthy” at the moment, and you are about to take it to a dry place, oiling it well (both inside and outside) will ease the transition.
To recap: pay attention to the relative humidity and to the state of the flute, and try to anticipate large and rapid changes in relative humidity so that you can protect the flute from them (either with a controlled humidity while in storage, or careful oiling in advance, or both).
There’s a reason why Ireland and Brittany are such great places for flute music… never had to worry about a dry flute back home in Brittany’s oceanic climate.
Maybe no time for this before your trip but if you have the money it is worth considering getting a keyless Delrin flute as a “travel to hot countries” instrument. As I travel in a motorhome all over Europe in the summer I have a Damien Thompson flute - plays brilliantly and completely stress free.
I have a keyless Delrin flute, so I thought I was safe. But I left it in a car during 37ºC heat … the cork dried out and shrank and was rattling around inside the head joint.
The flute itself was fine, but it was rendered temporarily unplayable by this event.
Not something you’d want to deal with when you’re on holiday.
The temperature inside a parked car can get considerably higher than the ambient temperature. So when you park, take the flute along with you.
I have a Desi Seery Delrin that is impervious to weather. I’ve had it 20+ years and love it. I’ve played some finer keyless D’s, but none by that much and none stand up to humidity or cold like it.
Everything went well. I oiled the flute before the travel and a few times during my stay I put a wet little piece of cloth into the case. The flute didn’t crack, dry out notably (never sounded like it did) and even through prolonged sessions didn’t swell too much. That being said, I always swap it out far more regularly during a session, compared to my Blackwood flute.
It only swelled up a bit much once over night, because I overdid it a bit with the wet cloth in the case.
But leaving the case open for an hour and removing some thread did it for me.
So for the next events in dry weather, I would do the combination of oiling before, swaping out regularly and leaving a little bit of wet cloth in the case from time to time.
Next time you may find yourself possibly facing an accidentally baking the cork situation. Bring along one of two things. Some teflon plumber’s tape wrapped around the tenon works well as a temporary cork. But if you don’t like the idea of teflon you could get yourself some embroidery floss. That and cork grease can get you buy in a pinch even if you don’t to a fine permanent job. Check out Jem Hamnond’s instructional video on thread tenon lapping to give you an idea of what you are aiming at. He’s wrapping a tenon for a forever fix. If you are at a festival and just want a temporary repair the embroidery floss and cork grease can be a little slap dash and get your tenon air tight for quite a while. I have used thread without grease for a temporary repair, but I have been told that can absorb condensation and become a danger for a wooden flute tenon. It would likely not have much of an effect on delrin.
). I have only had that one for the last 6 weeks or so. So I am sol getting to know it.
