Flute construction

European Baroque Orchestra Le Chardon

When building flutes, the important work begins much earlier than one thinks. Measuring the original has to be done very carefully and accurately. The next step is to cut the wood and dry it properly, without cracks. I mainly use ebony, blackwood or boxwood; other woods like plum or other fruit trees are also acceptable. Because they are hard to come by, one has to handcraft some of the special tools for making flutes.

The following pictures show roughly how a right-hand joint for a traverso is made. Drilling the finger holes and the intonation follow later – first with a drill, then with small knives or a small milling cutter.

Flute construction, step 1
1. A roughly sawn squared timber is fixed and turned until round.
Flute construction, step 2
2. The turned wood is now drilled through.
Flute construction, step 3
3. Here I use a handcrafted reamer to widen the bore to the measurements of the original flute. The bore is now irregularly conical, like that of the original.
Flute construction, step 4
4. To position the ivory ring, I turn the wood down to half a millimetre thickness. The joint is mounted on two precisely turned pieces of wood – there is a constant risk of cracking it.
Flute construction, step 5
5. Here you can see the turned piece and the accurately fitting ring I made of artificial ivory. Ring and piece are now glued together.
Flute construction, step 6
6. Now the glued piece is turned again.
Flute construction, step 7
7. In this picture you can see how I take away some wood with a chisel to get it correctly shaped.
Flute construction, step 8
8. The embellishment is done first; later the rest of the joint is turned.
Flute construction, step 9
9. Now the shape is identical to that of the original. Polishing the wood comes next.
Flute construction, step 10
10. The last step is to turn the tenon so that the pieces fit together.