A wooden flute does not need a lot of maintenance. A few ‘golden rules’ and some care will normally guarantee you years of pleasure. In this section, first general maintenance rules are explained, followed by a list of some common problems. The last section copes with some problems with keywork.
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keep your flute dry (but not too dry)
When wood adsorbs moisture, it swells, and when it dries, it shrinks. This well known fact is at the heart of quite some problems. Two examples of this: if a flute is not taken apart after playing, water can build up in the cavity in the barrel. The tenon of the flute body will swell, notably on a place where the wood of the barrel is rather thin. A crack will be the result.
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A second example is a flute which is played regularly, but which is kept in a very dry room. The outer part of the wood will dry out, and will start shrinking, whilst the inner part stays humid as the instrument is played regularly. The wood will have no choice than to develop surface cracks.
Three golden rules here:
1) take the instrument apart and dry it after playing;
2) oil the instrument regularly, this limits water absorption;
3) keep your instrument in a room with an air humidity of at least 50%.
A fourth golden rule, from a different nature, is not to close the tuning slide completely when putting the instrument away.
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How to dry the flute
Even before coming to the drying of the instrument, the most important thing is to take the flute apart (especially head and body) after playing, even if you stop playing ‘only for five minutes’. To dry out the flute, use a normal flute cleaner, preferably a wooden one, with a ‘peau de chamoix’. To clean the head, fix a piece of peau de chamoix onto a stick from about 15 mm diameter (buy it in a DIY-shop).
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How to oil the flute
As stated earlier, the main purpose of oiling the flute is to refrain the moisture from entering the wood. Secondly, as saliva attacks the wood, regularly oiling the instrument will prevent this, and will keep the bore polished. There is quite some discussion on the type of oil to use; I think both unboiled linseed oil and almond oil are suitable. I do prefer almond oil, mainly for the smell.
The idea of oiling is to put a SMALL amount of oil regularly: ie during the first two months, once every week, then once a month for the rest of the first year, later about 2-3 times a year. Apply the oil when the instrument is dry, i.e. before playing. In order to avoid using too much oil, I dip a wooden stick into the oil, and then twist the stick around in the bore. When you see a film of oil evenly spread all over the bore, it is OK. It might be necessary to dip the stick twice or even three times. Don’t forget the head joint if it is not metal lined all over, do put some oil on the embouchure sides in all cases. The outside of the instrument does not really need oil; I use some of the spill, if any, to spread it out on the outside.
In order to prevent oil entering into the leather pads in case of a keyed instrument, you can put small pieces of plastic under the pad. Oil coming onto a pad would ruin it.
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What to do if the corks come loose?
After a while, cork looses its elasticity, and also the wood itself might shrink to some extent. Before replacing the cork, you can put some linen thread on top of it, to readjust the fit. (The cork will prevent the thread from turning, which is the main problem with using thread only). First put some paraffin (candle) and then cork grease onto the thread. This solution will at least last until you decide to (let) replace the cork.
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What if rings come loose?
When the wood shrinks, even to a small extent, the metal rings can come loose, as they of course don’t shrink. It is imported to fix loose rings, not only to avoid them getting lost, but mainly because a loose ring will not give the mechanical strength to the wood to help to avoid splits, especially at tenons.
If you can take off the ring, clean the inside with coarse sandpaper or a round file, and roughen also the wood with a file or sandpaper. Glue the ring with a 2-component epoxy glue, which is one of the only glues that can really fill gaps well. Clean the spilled glue with acetone before the glue dries up.
If the ring turns but you cannot take it off, the best thing to do is to buy a very liquid type of ‘super glue’ (cyano-acrylate), and to let penetrate some glue between the loose ring and the wood. I often do this by dipping a needle into the glue, when you put the needle exactly in the cavity between ring and wood, the small drop of glue will penetrate by capillarity. After some dips, the cavity will be filled and the ring fixed. The whole operation takes just some minutes, and can be repeated at wish.
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What if the tuning slide’s movement has become or is blocked
If some dirt has come onto the tuning slide, or if the flute has not been played for a while, the tuning slide can become coarse or even get blocked. In the first case, take the tuning slide apart and clean it completely (the ‘male’ as well as the ‘female’ part) with a clothe dipped in some kind of solvent (acetone, white spirit,…). Then put new grease onto it (I like the grease from the brand ‘Tromba’, it is a perfect grease for corks as well as the tuning slide). If nothing has been damaged the tuning slide should again work smoothly. If the tuning slide is blocked, the best way is to try to get the pieces loose just by ‘man power’. Avoid using tools, only tools especially made for this purpose will do a good job, the others in generally won’t help, or can damage the instrument. If manpower doesn’t work, you’ll have to go to a professional. It is important to keep in mind that it is much easier to ‘unblock’ the tuning slide by pushing if further in, than by pulling it out. That’s why the fourth golden rule is to put the flute away with the tuning slide partly open, especially if the flute will not be used for quite some time.
A tuning slide can also be too loose; especially on old much used instruments. In a workshop it is not a big job to widen the ‘male’ part slightly to get a better fit.
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What when I discover a crack in my flute?
Although the saying that ‘there are two types of flutes, flutes that have cracks and flutes that still have to crack’ is largely exaggerated, the bad news is that cracks are never to be excluded, even when using well seasoned timber. The good news is that cracks can be repaired rather easily, and if this is done professionally it will hardly be visible afterwards.
When you discover a crack, you will have to go to and see a professional. In the meantime check at least whether the humidity in the place where the flute is kept is OK. Stop playing the flute, and certainly don’t oil it. If you have no chance to go and see a professional immediately, and if the crack develops further, you can decide to put a very liquid ‘super glue’ (cyanoacrylate) onto the crack. The glue must be fluid as water, if not, you’d better do nothing. The fluid glue will be soaked by capillarity into even the finest sides of the crack, and help to stabilise it.
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What if the pads don’t close well any longer?
The most common reason of frustration amongst flute players traditional and classic players alike is certainly ill-working keywork. One of the reasons that pads are leaking is the simple fact that pads when they get older, loose elasticity, and hence don’t perfectly close the hole any longer. A simple way to control this is to close one end of the flute body with a cork, close finger holes and blow and suck. No air should go in or out. If this is not the case, try to find which key causes the problem by pushing (or ask a second person to do so) one key after the other with some force. Once the bad one (or ones) identified, first control whether the key still moves freely and reacts immediately when releasing the finger moving it.
If all keys move freely, it will be necessary to change the pads, a normal operation after a couple of years (in the meantime you can close the key with an elastic or by putting some wax in the whole).
If not, in the case of pin-mounted keys, unscrew the axle and put some oil on it, then put it back into place. If nothing more serious is wrong, this should help. On block-mounted keys things are a bit different. On good quality instruments, the fit between the block and the key is so that hardly any lateral movement of the key is possible. This is very important, as this guarantees that the pad always comes exactly in the same position onto the hole corners. On a key where this is not the case, while playing there will always be a risk that the pads are not closing. The precision needed in fabrication is some 1/100 mm! However, this means that if the wood works a tiny little bit, it can prevent the key to move freely. In that case, first try to put a drop of oil between the wood and key. This might be enough to cure the problem. More likely, it will be necessary to widen the block opening slightly. Given the precision needed, this should be done by a professional.
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