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Making the flutes
I am still a relative newcomer to making flutes, and have an enormous amount to learn. Each flute is a voyage of discovery. I am heartened, however, by the fact that people do seem to want the flutes I produce, and have been very kind in appreciating what I do. I still, however, make flutes mainly for my own satisfaction and therapy. I can certainly make them better than I can play them, and having heard Nigel play one or two of my flutes with his consumate skill, I don't think that will ever change!
The basis of my craft still rests on many of the principles learned from Guillermo and Nigel, but I do experiment a great deal, particularly with the English series as it develops. I've also been lucky enough to have the time to study Lew Paxton Price's 'Secrets of the Flute' series, the maths and physics of which come close to my training as a scientist, and which continues to be invaluable and totally indispensable reference source in developing and tuning the flutes I make. I would also say that over the last couple of years, I have done a lot of new design work on the voice box of the flutes and they are now some way from where I started! These designs make SVF flutes sound the way they do, and I'm not going to open that up to allcomers...
...That said, I do have a basic series of stages and techniques which I use on most flutes, at least the ones which are 'Woodlands-style' in terms of their design, fipple shape, mouth end shape, and the placement of the flue channel in the body ('Plains -style' is often taken to mean that the flue is in the block, although strictly it can be in either position in these flutes). As I suspect is true of many other NAF makers, I have spent a good time looking at others' websites for tips and hints on how to do this or that, or improve designs, or correct horrendous blunders, and have often found them helpful. So, the pages which run off this one are both my contribution to the 'How to make a flute' encyclopedia, but more than that, they offer an insight for those who buy my flutes into how their instrument gained its life.
So, where to begin...
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The workshop
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I've learned over the last three years that you can make a NA flute with just a piece of wood, a stone, a knife, a rod, some plant fibre, pine resin, charcoal and a fire, but for ease of making and consistency of quality I use modern tools for much of my work. The section links below take you through, stage by stage, my most common route to making a flute. This is in no way a complete guide to how I make flutes - it's just the basics. If you want any further information or have any queries, please feel free to contact me.
• Wood - choosing, preparing and sectioning
• Cutting and routing the blank
• Fipples, voice boxes and flues
• Glueing and shaping
• Tuning
• Finishing
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Although I've said it on the Thanks page, I must acknowledge here again the invaluable, patient, help, advice and encouragement given by Nigel as I stumbled towards making my first half-decent flute. Also, the advice, books and specialist tools support from Jeff Calavan at The Oregon Flute Store has been a great help. For general tools, I can recommend going to Axminster (www.axminster.co.uk) who seem to be able to supply anything and everything at the drop of a hat.
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The Owlhouse • Milford • Surrey • UK • dc@secondvoiceflutes.co.uk
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© Second Voice Flutes 2005 |
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