hello im desperatly looking for any flute makers to order a bone flute, 4 holes and 1 thumb hole from deer or sheep leg bone. I have two and a smaller great deer bones but, i attempted on another smaller skinnier bone but dont know what went wrong. Been watching couple these youtube videos, im trying to shave down a tiny piece of dowel wood to fit into the top cut off piece of this deer bone then shave a flat part on one side, but i got no tools nor know how to cut the actual fipple mouthpiece into the bone, i got file tools to point side down and try and create the indentions but no idea. Should i use pvc first? what tool do i need to create the fipple? i tried drilling a hole but it tore up a piece of the bone/made a stupid drill hole so i messed up one nice deer bone already. I will pay whatever for a bone flute, i found a guy but he just left me on read and never got back to me. I am in texas so any help is appreciated!
I wouldn’t want to work with bone, but it sounds like an interesting project. Is your aim to make something like ancient flutes or do you want it to be a modern instrument. The fipple bit suggests the latter, but that also makes it a lot more work than a simple end-blown flute.
Out of interest, what are the dimensions of the bones that you want to use? Useful length (the part with a hole for the bore, external width, internal diameter of bore: I’d like to know what pitch of base note you might get out of it and how well suited the bore diameter might be for that.
In the Neolithic?
(I’ll fetch me coat)
ancient flute, someone said buy children recorder and cut it open to see how it works. i just cant find any more info than what i already got. i know people make and sell them at markets and festivals in scandinavia and the eu and uk but i missed every single event that might sell them now so out of luck, and i can try making a pvc version from this 4 hole cherokee pvc youtube video but thats about it.
You can learn a lot from experimenting with PVC. Make a few bad instruments but make them less bad each time. It would be well worth acquiring the skills that way as you can then make four hole instruments with different tunings to suit them to specific tunes based on the lowest note needed for them. With the bone ones though, how authentic would it be to stick a piece of wood into the end to make a windway? The ones I’ve seen photos of from prehistory look as if they never had a narrow windway; you just blow directly at the ramp while sealing the end with your lower lip. If I was going to use bone, I’d go for that design.
I don’t know what’s best for drilling bone; drill bits are likely too aggressive, and so might be the burrs that I use for wood and resin. What might work better is the end of a round, sharp-pointed needle file that I have from a set with tiny industrial diamonds embedded in them, but I’d need to saw the handle off it to turn it into something that fits in a drill. Its diameter is just right to fit a Dremel though, so I’m tempted to give it a go, and there are three of that type in the set. Here’s where I got my set from (at UK Amazon): QWORK® Needle File Set, 3x140mm Mini Modelling Files Diamond Files for Metal Plastic Glass Wood Jewelry Rough Carving, 10Pcs : Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools
These are almost certainly the same type on USA Amazon, just with a slightly different name: Amazon.com: Quacc 10 PCS Diamond Needle File Set Small Metal Riffler Files Miniature Files Tools 140mm for Glass Wood Stone Jewelry : Industrial & Scientific
(There’s a similar set without diamonds which is designed to file longitudinally rather than by rotation, so they likely wouldn’t work, but the diamond ones are omnidirectional.)
yeah theres a video i found that depicts using a wood block but a small thick 4 hole pvc flute didnt see the sound hole part but figured it is the same fipple-recorder design i’ve seen in a few videos when you just lookup how to/diy bone flute on youtube. But yes there was a article that listed bone flutes in history & a lot had the V or square cut on one side of the mouthpiece as you mentioned and there were a lot that had the square sound holes with one end thats beveled down. And yeah i saw a video someone used a electric dremel like tool to make the V cut mouthpiece easily but that part there is no sound hole needed from pictures, as its just the finger holes and the V cut mouthpiece for that design.
The idea of making an ancient type of bone flute does have some appeal, just for the sake of finding out what it was like for the people who made and played them. What’s bone like to work with? Does it smell bad, or does that only happen to it once a dog starts slobbering over it? Is it clean? Can it be sanded smooth? Is the bore constant for any distance? Is the bore circular? How wide is the bore relative to the usable length of the bone? What length of instrument can you reasonably make from readily available bones without access to large dead zoo animals?
Sorry for a late reply, but maybe others would be interested in this –
Songbird Ocarina offers several styles of faux-bone flutes. They’re made from some sort of epoxy or plastic that simulates real bone very effectively.
They call it their “Eagle Bone Flute”. See Eagle Bone Flute - Songbird Ocarina
Another late response that may/may not be of interest. There’s a guy out in the Berkeley, CA area who makes flutes out of dried elderberry branches. Different materials but might have some similar ideas a for bone flutes. Search for Antonio Flores for both articles and YouTube videos. These flutes were common among the tribes in California in the pre-contact times.
Best wishes.
Steve