Wooden Flute Maintenance
Humidity and Temperature
1. Avoid sudden temperature and humidity changes. Prevent your instrument from getting wet.
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2. Don't keep a wooden instrument in the sun or close to heating appliences and in very dry/wet/cold/hot environment. Optimal conditions for a flute are 20-22 degrees Celsius, 40-60% relative humidity. It is recommended to keep a flute in a special bag (but don't put it in the bag right after playing, let it dry first). If you live in climate conditions with too low or high relative humidity, it might be a good idea to purchase a special air humidifyer/dryer to keep your flutes safe.
3. You should also keep in mind that wooden instruments are afraid of the cold and the hot temperatures. If you bring the instrument with you outside and it's cold or hot, the flute might get out of tune. It should get back its tuning when you bring it back home and leave for a while. However frequent strong temperature changes are harmful for the instrument. Playing outdoors is generally not recommended, but if you decide to, try to avoid doing that in temperatures that differ too much from the optimal (20-22 degress Celcius). Especially in the cold, the strong condensate coming into the flute with your breath in the cold air might seriously damage your instrument and lead to instant cracks.
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4. It's better to protect your instrument by carrying it out with you in a speciaal bag. When bringing it back home from the outside, don't take it out of the bag immediately, but leave for at least an hour, so that the temperature change wouldn't be so strong for the flute.
Especially this is very important with a new flute, it's highly not recommended to unpack it and start playing non-stop right away. You should do it bit by bit, warming the instrument up and letting the wood to get accustomed to the constant use. First, play it for a few minutes in a row. Then day by day gradually and very slowly increase that time. For the same reason when you get your new instrument at the post office, don't hurry to play it right away, just leave it for a bit and let it get accustomed to the new environment climate and stabilize, then slowly start warming it up with your breath and play.
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Condensate Removal
7. After each time you've played your flute, remove condensate from it by covering the sound hole in front of the block and quickly and heavily blowing into the mouthpiece. You can repeat the procedure during playing, if you feel like the flue has been clogged with condensate and the flute started to sound poor. As well it's recommended to do that a few times before playing, to warm up the instrument.
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8. Next step to do after playing - remove the block and wipe the sound mechanism with a piece of fabric (with ocarinas and forest flutes/whistles where block is glued to the body, just blow hard into the instrument a few times covering the sound hole, then wipe the flue with a thin flat piece of cloth, pushing it accurately under the block), then heavily and rapidly shake the flute to remove moisture, and wipe the sound mechanism and mouthpiece again.
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9. After playing a flute it's also important to dry it. For that use a stick with a piece of dry cloth attached to it and accurately wipe the inside of the flute. If skipping this, mold can appear.
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10. For more protection against mold appearing, use a dryer to ventilate the inside of the flute, slow air chamber and sound mechanism (with normal/cool dry air).
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11. After that leave your flute for a few hours or overnight to dry completely before putting it in a bag.
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12. Avoid playing your flute for more than 20 minutes without a break. This might lead to overwetting with condensate and cause cracks. Always take breaks during playing, removing condensate, wiping the flue area out and letting your flute dry a bit. If you plan to play for more than 20 minutes, oil the chambers of your flute before (if they are not varnished), this will reduce the absorbtion of condensate.
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Leather Cords and Wooden Decorations Care
13. If your flute has leather cords and/or wooden beads and pendants, they need care too. Oil them with linseed oil regularly (wooden items need oiling only if not varnished). To prevent leather from dying out and getting brittle, maintaining the fresh new look, it needs oiling every week. If your cords get hard, soak them into oil for a few hours every now and then to softem them back.
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Keep in mind that your flute will last longer if you take care of it properly.