Does anybody here know how long it takes to season elder for making
flutes? Or if it needs to be seasoned at all?
I am reading this believing you are referring to a species of g.
Sambucus, such as we get elderberries from, not Box Elder (Acer
negundo) or any of the Alders.
That's right.
Second, the "general rule of thumb" for drying logs has been to figure
one year for each inch in diameter.
That sounds feasible. These are folk instruments from materially simple
cultures where there are few full-time specialist craftsmen, so dedicated
wood-seasoning facilities for this sort of thing are not going to exist.
What sized piece of wood are you starting with?
The usual Moldavian kaval in A is in one piece 30 inches long and about
1-1/8 inches thick when finished. A whistle in A from the same area
is 14 inches long and 3/4 inch diameter at the thicker end. There are
variants of both a bit bigger and smaller, but A is the usual pitch.
For boiling green wood, see:
http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com...reen-wood.html
Interesting exercise thinking how to adapt that to flute-shaped pieces.
I could try a plant trough heated by electric immersion coils.
I can't see an image or video of a traditionally-made elder kaval
on the web. YouTube has a few good videos of people playing more
upmarket versions: Adam Torok has one in B which is some dark wood
(plum?), and Andras Hodorog has a very sophisticated two-piece one
in A - he told me what it was made of but I forget, some kind of
light-coloured hardwood. Here's a picture I took this summer, of
the 85-year-old Csango (Moldavian-Hungarian) whistle player Balint
Illes from Csik near Bacau, with his instruments:
http://www.campin.me.uk/Travel/Roman...alintIlles.jpg
The largest instrument is a kaval. the next-largest is a tilinko
(harmonic flute with no fingerholes). I think they're all made of
elder and some of them are probably older than I am.
I doubt if elder is anywhere near as temperamental as sycamore and
there's a lot more of it to choose from around here.
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Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
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