wood flute

There was a lady in my turning club in the States that made wood "American Indian" flutes...

The only part that I remember, because it was so clever, is that she no longer drilled the long hole through the stock... Her husband cut the stock lengthwise, routed the long hole and glued it back together.. Then, she'd put it on the lathe and turn it... not sure if the finger holes were drilled before, after or during turning, though..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Others have already provided links and such, so I'll indicate how I do it...

I start with stock approx 1" thick, two pieces long enough to make the flute and about 1 1/2" wide or so I route a groove down each piece with a 7/8 core box bit and router. The groove goes most of the way down from one end, then the router is picked up and a separate "closed groove" of about 2" long is made. When done, I have two identical pieces of wood that have two grooves, one that is to be the "feed chamber" and the other the open end of the flute. These are glued together, so the grooves match up, creating a tube and a closed chamber.

On the lathe, I turn the flute round between centers, to a wall thickness of about 3/16". At the mouthpiece end, a hole is drilled into the closed chamber centered on the diameter, which is where the player will blow into. A couple of holes are drilled on the "top" of the flute, one into the closed chamber and the other into the end of the main chamber. A "bird" is made to connect the two chambers and the hole of the main chamber is modified to create the "splitter" that makes the flute work. (essentially, the closed chamber allows for smoothing the airflow, and the bird and hole in the main chamber create a path for airflow and the hole you'd see on a typical whistle).

Years ago, I bought a series of booklets on the Native American Flute, and they also provided some spreadsheets that allow me to get proper tuning. I enter the diameter of the bore, the wall thickness and the spreadsheets indicate the length of the bore for the key I want, along with where to drill the finger holes... I can't find these right now, so cannot provide the source or name to make finding them easier.

I tried several methods, and found making a half round groove with a routher and gluing the two halves together was far superior to trying to bore a 3/4 or 7/8" diameter hole (into end grain)down the length of either a blank or a finished cylinder of wood.

There are some links on the internet that provide plans for making flutes from common PVC pipe. They can allow experimenting with tuning, etc., before you go to the trouble of turning one on the lathe.

Seems to me that is a good idea. Regular wall and repeatability.

I'd treat it like a pen - with a central rod and end compression.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net TSRA, Endowed; NRA LOH & Patron Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal. NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.

mac davis wrote:

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