Your description of your Hall flute sounds similar to this Firth Son & Co flute I used to own:Terry McGee wrote: ↑Thu Dec 07, 2023 6:11 pm In a funny juxtaposition, I'm currently fixing up a US-made William Hall flute which I hope will fill a hole in my experience. Haven't measured it up properly yet, but the bore seems to lie a little bigger than the Firth, Pond & Co that gave rise to my Grey Larsen Preferred model, but a bit smaller than the bore of my Rudall Refined model, similar to the flute featured by Chris Norman. The holes are probably a little bigger again, so it seems to have a bigger holes-to-bore ratio than the smaller English flutes. Which is of course the definition of "better vented". It seems easy and willing at this stage. It will be interesting to see where it fits in when I get it fully working.
http://jonathanwalpole.com/firth-son-co-8-key
I've worked on a lot of different William Hall flutes, and they have all been pretty good, but generally have slightly smaller holes and bore than the above Firth Son & Co. The flute linked below would be more typical of the William Hall flutes I've worked on, but I know they too occupy a spectrum of designs.
http://jonathanwalpole.com/william-hall-son-6-key
I just sent off two restored William Hall flutes to the Irish Flute Store, and they should appear on the site shortly (one 4 key and one 6-key). They are both toward the smaller tone-hole, narrower bore, end of the spectrum for William Hall flutes -- responsive, easy players with a beautifully sweet high end, that work for ITM, but are not session blasters. Players looking for a flute with low breath requirements, more responsive (easier to be crisp) ornaments and a sweet top end, at the expense of some volume and power, tend to like them.
But to bring this back to the R&R discussion, it is clear that just as Rudall and Rose flutes represented a fairly wide spectrum on design choices, bore profiles and tone hole sizes, over the lifespan of the company, the same is true of most of the main American flute makers of that period.