Breton flute
Breton flute.

Here is a whistle, or rather a diatonic recorder of a style deliberately more Breton than Irish.
It is intended for the repertoire of the bombard and differs from the Irish flute by the presence of a subtonic hole, just like the key of the bombard.
The flute is also quite powerful and stable in the low register, which also corresponds well to the range of the bombard.
It is in D major, unlike the Bb bombard, but in truth a Bb flute would be too long
and the goal for a training instrument is rather to have a similar finger spacing to that of the bombard.
The bore is tapered inverted, and the head is removable, allowing adjustment of the tuning.
The flute is made of three woods, rosewood, boxwood and Macassar ebony for the body.
It is also decorated with pewter inlaying.
Here is a small video presentation ..
For those who are curious about how to make a flute, here are some pictures showing
the steps of manufacturing.
The first difficulty, especially for conical instruments, is drilling and boring.
The piercing is done in a stepped way, starting with the smallest diameter from one side to the next, then by successively bigger diameters on a shorter length, so as to rough out the cone.
Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of this step. It is actually done in advance, so as to leave
the time for the wood to stabilize and fully equilibrate with the moisture of the surrounding air.
The first photos show the boring of this flute, ie the shaping of the inner cone with a tool
called a reamer which has the exact shape of the bore and which allows to obtain a perfect surface state.
The making of a conical reamer is in itself quite an adventure, and this is explained in another article.
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The reamer is held in the chuck |
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For once on the lathe, it is the tool |
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The three pieces forming the head, roughly shaped. |
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The body of the head, on the mandrel .. |
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Machining the body of the head .. |
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This shoulder corresponds to the thickness of the channel inside the beak. |
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Shaping of the outer part of the head on the wood-turning lathe this time .. |
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Milling of the canal. |
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I use a high speed motor block installed |
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Milling the slope at an angle of 12 °. |
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Checking the machining. The compound slide |
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The most interesting part starts, for this it requires tools |
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Shaping of the part called labium. |
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The cap, the cape and the head body .. |
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Assembled for the first cry .. |
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Finishing, here I am using Abranet sand paper up to 600 grit. |
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Adjusting the lowest note on the body. |
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The flute has already its roughed playing holes. |
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Forest of drill bits, each stepped by a tenth of a millimeter. |
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Once the cap is in place and glued on, |
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The rounding is finished on the roll of the belt sander. |
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A bevel on the top of the beak for this model that has a "big head" .. |
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Final shape of the beak .. |
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Fine tuning .... |
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In fact, I had miscalculated the position of my holes ... |
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Sculpture for inlays .. |
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Tin filling with soldering iron. |
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If you control the temperature well, there is a phase |
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Finishing the pewter ring on the lathe, with the gouge .. |
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There you go.... |
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The finished flute, before oiling .. |
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Profile.. |
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Detail of the beak .. |
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Oiling. |
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Oiling helps to saturate the wood and allow it to better |
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The flute in two parts. |
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The appearance changes a lot. This wood, which is a clear ebony vein |
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Stamping. |
Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Christophe
PS. I remind you that I do not sell my instruments, but I can help you if you want to make your own.
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Category : - Woodwinds
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