It’s always encouraging to find and meet other flute makers. Via Internet, I’ve met John Hnath who recently made his first branch flute from dogwood.
I was interested to see it and hear how we found making it. He has been kind enough to share his thoughts and photos of the flute.
The turquoise at the end of the flute is a great touch. And the branch looks like it would have a pretty difficult one to work with. But the end result is beautiful!
Thanks for sharing, John.
John writes,
I like the flute. Since it is a branch flute it has a unique shape and sound.
It is the first closed end flute that I have made (of 48 flutes so far) and when I first finished it I was disappointed that the sound was very weak and of poor quality.So I relegated the flute to the pile of unsatisfactory ones and went on to other projects.
The flute stayed there for over a month until I read on a Yahoo flute-maker group that the direction holes must equal in area the area of the inside bore; and mine did not. So I got the flute out of the reject pile, drilled a couple large direction holes, and what a difference!
Now the flute plays beautifully and has become one of my favorites. Key of Bb.
The flute was made from a gifted dried branch so I have no idea how long it dried but it was thoroughly dried and very hard. Because of the hardness I did the bore with a high speed electric die grinder and Kutzall carbide cutter – it took about 3 minutes to do the basic bore which I then finished with hand gouges and sandpaper. I glued it with Titebond waterproof wood glue and finished it inside and out with Deft semigloss lacquer.
I showed the finished flute to a friend of mine who recently became interested in NASF flutes and he seemed to have a hard time handing it back to me – it just didn’t seem to want to leave his hands.
