This Old Flute - nach Meyer

[Carey]

This from my local fiddler and history buff:

"There wasn't even a Czechoslovakia until after WWI. They were a province of the Austria-Hungarian empire. Germany was a collection of small states until Bismarck unified them in the 1870s.

Um...nothing about flutes though, sorry. My historical knowledge is about wars, governments, etc. "

So, we could still use some beta on the music/manufacturing side of things.

C

[groxburgh]

My C-melody sax was made by Oscar Adler around 1925 at Markneukirchen. You can see some photos of the sax here:
http://www.cmelodysax.co.uk/saxophones/oa-cmel.htm

There were a large number of musical instrument manufacturers in this area, Adler, Huller, Keilwerth, Moennig, etc etc, and the country it was located in changed over time as politcal borders moved around.

Most manufacturers in the area were later to become part of the Amati group which is still operating and there are some details of the history here:
http://www.amati.cz/english/history.htm

Cheers
Graeme

[Carey]

Well, hello, it's been a while. Other things have had my attention for the past weeks. (Including putting hurricane shutters up, and down, and up, and down.) But finally some progress in the forward direction on the old flute.

I thought "What had I better do before I try to re-tune this flute?" One thing was to make sure all the pads seal, and they do. The other was to make sure all the joins seal, and they didn't. So, what to do? Since this flute isn't of great historical importance, and since I still have many chances to mess it up, I thought I'd take the most expedient approach.

The socket at the bottom of the barrel was poorly patched by someone before I bought it and this needed fixing. You can see just by looking at the photo the surface was not smooth and even.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3K ... tpaQ"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SIj-7qi ... 240026.JPG" /></a>

I considered another coating of epoxy resin or putty that I could turn to size once hard. But I had just read about making a thick patch material out of the CA glues (Super Glues) and baking soda. So I thought I'd give that a try since it was A) quick and B) easy to control where it went since it set up so quickly.

I held the barrel horizontally and put the baking soda in position, smoothing it out as much as practical with a short section of PVC pipe. I then dripped some CA glue on the baking soda and tilted the barrel around to help it flow into all the baking soda. I had more glue than soda, so I added some more soda and created a lump that I had to remove. Otherwise it went well.

I made a split bushing out of PVC so I could grip the barrel in the lathe and slowly turned the ID nearly back to where it was supposed to be. I stopped before I removed any of the original wood, and hand sanded and then steel wooled the ID until it was smooth.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yK ... 1-ow"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SMXLP0m ... 080010.JPG" /></a>

The white looking material is the baking soda/CA glue patch. It looked clear until I scratched it up with the lathe and sandpaper.

Now on to the corks. Nothing fancy there.

This is the original cork, completely compressed and not at all interested in sealing the join. I ordered some 3/32 sheet cork from an on-line supplier and followed some instructions I found for re-corking a clarinet. These particular instructions recommended contact cement, which I have and it's quick, so that was my approach.

Here's a look at the before...

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/HV ... R_zg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SIj--rD ... 240029.JPG" /></a>

I could scrape the cork of with my thumb nail it was so dry and crumbly...

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4P ... AMUw"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SMXLQtc ... 080011.JPG" /></a>

And then the after:

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/V9 ... pbbw"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SMXLRYU ... 080012.JPG" /></a>

The cork was thicker than needed so I carefully hand sanded it round and round until it was a good snug fit. It might be too snug still but I don't know if new cork takes a set after a bit or not. I can always sand it a little more later. It goes together without much bother, but after being together for a while it takes a little grip to get it to start moving. Perhaps the ID needs to be smoother.

I did the same on the other end, but didn't bother with photos. I had to remove a couple keys to make room to work, but that all went well without any surprises.

So, now, what to do about the tuning? Since I plan on removing material only to give myself a bit of slide exposed when at A=440, I think I'll see if I can tune the flute to itself with the slide fully closed and then once that is done to my satisfaction I'll see about reclaiming some tuning slide from the head. Of course if it's too far off while fully closed I might have to attack the head first.

Carey

[Jon C.]

The best way to repair the sockets, for a semi permanent repair, is to bore out the socket, turn a new piece of wood, glue it in and then re-cut the socket. I like to bore out a section that is 1mm wide behind the ring, this way it appears to be solid wood, and there will be no seam showing. When fitting the new piece of wood, make it a little loose, and glue in with a good epoxy.

[Carey]

Thanks Jon,

At the moment I don't have any appropriate wood. Lot's of PVC tho .

I like your idea of letting the new insert mask the seam. Clever, and a nice touch.

C

[Jon C.]

Thanks Jon,

At the moment I don't have any appropriate wood. Lot's of PVC tho .

I like your idea of letting the new insert mask the seam. Clever, and a nice touch.

C

I can send you a piece of cocus or blackwood if you like. I don't remember the color of your flute, I think it was rather dark? Anyway, let me know.

[Carey]

OK, it's pretty far along. Today I played it for most of the six-hour session. Near the end I could no longer sound the low D so I switched to my Hammy Hamilton Practice Flute and carried on. I guess that tells me that I could improve the embouchure, eh?

Here's a couple photos of the work done:

1) Cut 6 mm off the bottom of the head.

This wasn't as trivial as it should have been because I couldn't get the head into my lathe and bring the tooling to bear, so I chucked it up and used a Gent's saw to make the cut while the head turned beneath it.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Q8 ... qZXw"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SM3XCo8 ... 090013.JPG" /></a>

Once the head was shorter, the brass liner had to be shortened a like amount.

Then, since the socket for the tuning slide was shortened by 6 mm I had to bore the socket 6 mm deeper.

The recess was cut to allow the ring to be placed on the new end.

It came out just fine, you'd never know it was shortened. Here's how it sounded once the head was shortened. I didn't bother trying to tune the flute to carefully as I knew I had more work to do.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/a6 ... hk3Q"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SM3Wln- ... 20Head.jpg" /></a>

2) Enlarge the finger holes

This was straight forward. I used a dremel with a straight sided cutting tool and first undercut the holes as much as I could. Then the F# hole was enlarged, maintaining the undercut. The F# was the flattest so I worked it first, but when it got close to the others, I started working them all.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nl ... nBzg"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SM3WDSn ... 140016.JPG" /></a>

I really had to enlarge the F# hole. The others as well, but not as drastic.

<a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n7 ... fqKw"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/parkscarey/SM3WBvV ... es%208.jpg" /></a>

i can play it in tune enough that nobody in our session makes funny faces. I would like to bring the RH notes up some more, but I ran out of time when the session car pool appeared in the drive way. If it were not for the keys, I'd consider shortening the distance between LH and RH holes by taking out a section of the body, but with all the keys etc. I don't think I want to do that. I'm open to ideas, but I think I'll just work the holes bigger. I have to do the holes under the keys too if I want to use them. But for now it's good to just be able to play the flute with others.

[Carey]

I can send you a piece of cocus or blackwood if you like. I don't remember the color of your flute, I think it was rather dark? Anyway, let me know.

The chunk of wood came today. Thanks Jon! I looks the perfect color, feels the same, and even smells like the right stuff. (Sure glad I didn't step in it )

Cheers,

Carey