Made a flute with a new design. Not sure if I like it. It is square-ish instead of round-ish. Red cedar and maple construction tuned to F#.
I still haven’t made a totem for it yet. Still deciding what spirit animal I want to put on there. Maybe a dragon or loch ness monster (jk). I have several animal totems designs for the cnc but haven’t decided which one to use for this one.
What are your opinions on the design? Nay or Aye.
I used to make these on my wood lathe.
It’s nice, how does it play?
Thank you. Not sure how to explain it but It sounds a little soft/dull???. Its tuned to F# but not perfect. Not one of my favorites sounding-wise.
I was trying to figure out an easier way to make flutes but don’t like it.
I dropped my personal flute onto a concrete floor and cracked it pretty good. I took a chance and threw a ton of glue into the cracks and hoped for the best and pulled it out of the clamps today. I think I lucked out and have my flute back.
This is my flute and it has a very nice sound to it (F#).
If I recall (many years ago) we routed a 1/2 circle down the length, glued the 1/2’s together and then turned on the lathe.
We also experimented with drilling the body with rifle drills.
Very cool. That how I make them as well. Route with 7/8 cove bit on each side and then glue together.
I’ve started to use different species of wood to fancy em up a bit. For my next ones I am going to use purple heart as the accents.
New totem model and three new flutes I made in this series. Eastern red cedar, maple, purpleheart. The totem is cnc carved in purpleheart.
Your flutes look very nice! I especially like the mouth piece. I am also building flutes and have created a website to share my workflow. Might be a good source if some of you are interested in building a native American style flute.
Here is the link: https://www.spirit-flute.com
Kay
Very informative site and impressive work. Back when I was making these the CNC was not a thing. Maybe, I should add it back to my long list of undone projects.
Beautiful flutes, website and wonderful craftsmanship. I love how much you’ve incorporated the cnc into the build.
I started too but pulled back. I now only use power tools (router, drill, lathe) and hand tools (hand saw, chisels) to make mine except for the totem. For the totem I do cnc carve with my own designs. I started with Bluebear flutes design and then evolved my own design from it.
Each of mine is completely unique whether i want them to be or not. lol
Here are my last batch of totems.
Wow! Really nice totems. I like the birds a lot.
I have just started to use the CNC more in my flute building and really like to use it for delicate things like the sound area, finger holes and now to decorate the totem. It opens a lot of room for creative ideas. A butterfly and a feather were my first objects that I used on the totem. But now you have sparked my creativity again ,
Have a great day
Kay
