Chiff and Fipple Forums

I just finished playing my Busman and went to swab it dry before putting it away. Someone's moved my regular swab, I guess (grrrr!), because I realized AFTER I did the deed that I'd just "dried" my whistle with my oil brush! Is it harmful to oil a whistle while it's still damp? The recorder brush I use for oil holds a great deal, so it got a pretty good coating, even though I hadn't re-oiled the brush.

Redwolf

In theory it can be harmful. Makers tend to recommend that you don't play a whistle for a day or two before you oil it. The oil would have a tendency to seal in any moisture in the tube.

How harmful it would prove in practice I simply don't know and I think these wooden whistles might be a bit more hardy than we sometimes imagine. I have a Grinter low F which gets the full immersion treatment down to the headstock and is then left to drain overnight. You then wipe off the excess the next day. Now, I find that there might be a certain amount of excess the day after as well. So what do I swab it with the first couple of times I play it? If I choose the oily swab I have your problem. If I choose my usual swab I'm making it oily. If I choose a completely new swab am I getting rid of moisture (as desired) or partly getting rid of moisture and partly sealing it in by moving a bit of excess oil around as I swab? Well, I can report that, whatever I'm doing, the Grinter is going very well. I think common sense just dictates that you try not to do this sort of thing too often. I bet you won't do it again soon.

I have nine wooden whistles and two wooden flutes. It's the devil of a job keeping swabs separated and remembering which oil was used on which flute/whistle. Cylindrical flutes mean that you might need two different sized swabs for each purpose for different parts. And then there's the problem of keeping key pads dry. Ouch! But wood is so lovely.

I doubt you did any harm, Red.

I have a cloth on a stick for oiling. For swabbing the first time after oiling I have a recorder brush. Its bristles aren't in great shape due to the little bit of oil it picks up, but it's still pretty absorbent. For usual swabbings I have a couple of brushes and a couple of silk cloths on sticks -- for different bore sizes.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. I've got a set of Abell wooden whistles (Bb, D, C, Eb) that I've had since the late 1980s/early 1990s, and I've oiled them only once or twice in that whole time. No cracks, no problems, they play just as well as they did when I got them from Chris. If they're that hardy, then mixing a little oil and water is probably not going to hurt your wooden whistles. The oil doesn't do a very good job of sealing the wood anyway, so it's not like you're locking the water in there indefinitely.

Redwolf,

Paul can certainly tell you how expects the oiling to affect the whistle he made but, generally speaking, one should have nothing to worry about in your situation (assuming the instrument in question doesn't have some unusual finish that might be reactive): Many woodwind makers actually completely submerge their instruments in oil, often for many hours or even days at a time, and some even use pressure to force the oil deeper into the wood (we do this at Von Huene).

If it makes you feel any better, first thing tomorrow morning I'll be dropping a dozen $1,500 recorders into a pressurized oil bath for the day, and you don't see me sweating, do ya? So what if they aren't my instruments...


Loren

Loren wrote:Redwolf,

Paul can certainly tell you how expects the oiling to affect the whistle he made but, generally speaking, one should have nothing to worry about in your situation (assuming the instrument in question doesn't have some unusual finish that might be reactive): Many woodwind makers actually completely submerge their instruments in oil, often for many hours or even days at a time, and some even use pressure to force the oil deeper into the wood (we do this at Von Huene).

If it makes you feel any better, first thing tomorrow morning I'll be dropping a dozen $1,500 recorders into a pressurized oil bath for the day, and you don't see me sweating, do ya? So what if they aren't my instruments...


Loren

I'm not worried about the oil itself, as it's just the bore oil I normally use to oil the whistle. It's the fact that I inadvertantly oiled it while it was quite wet (I'd been playing for a while).

Redwolf

Loren wrote:


If it makes you feel any better, first thing tomorrow morning I'll be dropping a dozen $1,500 recorders into a pressurized oil bath for the day, and you don't see me sweating, do ya? So what if they aren't my instruments...


Loren

WOW!!!

Relax Redwolf-- you should be OK. You might want to swab out the excess oil, then leave the whistle alone for a couple of days for that moisture to dry out. Then you can give it a light oiling again.

Oh good...I really was concerned when I looked down and saw oil oozing off the brush I was using. I really need to get brushes in different colors or something, so this doesn't happen again.

Thanks!

Redwolf

Redwolf wrote:I'm not worried about the oil itself, as it's just the bore oil I normally use to oil the whistle. It's the fact that I inadvertantly oiled it while it was quite wet (I'd been playing for a while).

Redwolf

Like Paul said, nothing to worry about - the only thing that happens when your bore is already wet is that the oil won't be as readily absorbed into the wood, no biggie.

Loren

I wouldn't worry. I remember a thread about oiling several months back. David Migoya said he oils his flutes immediately after every playing. He's probably been doing that for quite a wile.