Flutes, Low Whistles - the details

Standard Flutes in the key of D:

About the flute-head:

My flute-heads are all made with a tuning slide from Nickel-silver. The head is not completely lined with metal tubing, it stops about 40mm below the blowhole. The Blowhole is designed in a fashion of a modern Böhm style blowhole. The shape is an elongated round hole not square as seen on some Böhm System flutes and not oval as on the old style flutes.

About the Flute-body:

I distinguish between two versions for the flute-body:

One-piece body

The Flute consists of the Head, the Barrel and one long joint that has all the finger and noteholes. There is one tenon that connects to the Flutehead.

Two-piece body!

The Flute consists of the Head, the Barrel and two joints that make up the flute-body. The top-joint has the top three finger-holes and the bottom-joint has the lower three finger-holes. There is one Tenon that connects to the Flutehead and one that connects the two pieces between the a fingerhole (ring-finger, left hand) and the g fingerhole (index finger, right hand. If the instrument has a g# key, the notehole is on the top-joint.

Both versions have the same bore and notehole dimensions with the exception of the g# hole that has to be in a different position on the two-piece body model, to make space for the tenon. All tenons are capped with brass to ensure stability and to protect them from harm.

The noteholes are medium sized, not as big as the holes on a Rudall&Rose or a Pratten (to my knowledge...), but big enough to produce a rich, voluminous sound. All finger and note-holes are undercut and finished by hand.

C-Foot Model Flutes

The Flute-head:

The Flute-head is the same as on my Standard Flutes.

The Flute-body:

The flute body consists of middle-part and foot. The middle part holds all six fingerholes and the foot the noteholes for Eb, if the instrument has a Eb key, D and C#. The longer bore facilitates an easier playable third octave and extends the range of the instrument two semitones to low C, provided that C# and C keys are fitted.

The middle part can be made as one piece joint or split into two joints, between the g and a (3^rd and 4^th) fingerhole, the same way the Standard Flutes can be made up of one or two piece bodies.

The Keywork

The Keywork that I make is a high quality, pin mounted design. As materials I use castings in bronze, nickel-silver tubing, steel springs and steel rodscrews. Generally I get all keywork and pillars silver-plated, but can do unplated keywork on special order.

All my experience that I acquired during my apprenticeship as Bassoonmaker in Germany (W.Schreiber & Söhne in Nauheim) and in the following years as working craftsman goes into design and production.

Low Whistles

My Low Whistles are all carefully handmade from Aluminium Alloy tubing. The Fipple is hand-hammered to work-harden the material. All fingerholes are deburred by hand to ensure a smooth airflow.
The finished whistle is then glass-bead blasted to achieve a distinctive surface finish that is not slippery. Anodising creates a protective layer in black on all parts of the whistle that protects and improves the finish.

The Resulting instrument is then checked for correct pitch and, if necessary fitted with a tuning slide.
The tuning slide is made of a bigger tube that is fitted to the head. The body has a recess with cork to fit into the bigger tube. Tuning Slides can be fitted to all Low Whistles at a later stage if desired.

Upcoming projects...

Soon available are wooden head-joints for Böhm System Flutes. During the last few years I met a couple of flute-players who are keen in playing a wooden flute, but the finger-hole spacing is too wide or the simple system doesn't allow for easy playing in all keys. For these people I am currently developing a wooden flute-head to replace the normal metal head. The resulting sound is somewhat inbetween a wooden flute and a Böhm System flute.