Port Orford Cedar Flute - Custom Ordered by Tom Mitchell (click on images to enlarge)
Updated 03/10/2011
This flute is being custom made for Tom Mitchell from the state of Oregon. This flute is being crafted from Old Growth Port Orford Cedar. The flute will be made to play in the Key of A and it will be a five hole flute. The flute will have a custom fetish made for Tom that resembles the Grizzly Bear. Here is a brief pictorial history of the birth of Tom's flute. Please note that these images are taken in the shop and are not under the best lighting conditions.
 The first shot is of the very beginning stage. Here we show the two blanks we have selected for this flute in the key of A. These were cut from a single piece of Port Orford stock and then cut in half. Each half will be measured and marked for the next step which is to hand carve the Slow Air Chamber and the Barrel of the flute.
 This next picture illustrates the layout of the blanks prior to carving the Slow Air Chamber and the Barrel of the flute. It is important that each half is correctly marked so that when they are ready to be glued together the halves match up as closely as possible. Because the halves are hand carved it is nearly impossible to create two flutes exactly the same. Most flutes you will find on the market have been cut using power tools and a router bit. Using power tools to manufacture the flute halves is fast and efficient and will in most cases produce a nice sounding flute. But we just like to do by hand.
 Once the flutes halves are laid out we hand carve the Slow Air Chamber and the flutes barrel. This picture shows the two halves after we have ruffed out the halves. At this point we are ready to sand the recently carved halves and ready them for sealing. The sealing helps keeps the inside of the flute from absorbing moisture. We will create the Air Channel just prior to sealing. Once we have sprayed several coats of lacquer on the inside of the flute we will then glue the two halves together. The bear fetish for this flute has taken its shape and is ready to be finished to a smooth hand rubbed surface.
 The next step in the process for Tom's flute is the sealing of the Slow Air Chamber and the flutes barrel. In this pic you can see that we mask off the parts of the flute's halves so they will not receive any lacquer. This is important as we do not want the parts of the flute that receives glue to be sealed in any way. It is very difficult to create two halves that will match up in the gluing process when carving by hand, so we spend as much time as we need to keep our lines as close to the layout as possible.
 This picture speaks for itself. This is the stage where we glue the two halves together and clamp the flute in way to apply as even a pressure as we can across the body of the flute. The flute will sit in these clamps for a minimum of 24 hours before we remove them and start the shaping process. This is a part of the process that I like the least as I always look forward to the shaping process. It is at this point that the flute takes it's first breath.
By the time we have glued the halves together we have spent  many hours making sure we are as close to the type of flute we want to end up with. Once the clamps are removed we are left with a square flute blank that is ready to establish the base note we are looking to achieve. The Windway has been created prior to gluing and we fine tune the Windway and the True Sound Hole as close as we can get it without removing too much material from the Windway area. We will fine tune this later.
The next part of the process is what we enjoy the most, the shaping of the flute itself. After we have established the base note to  an acceptable key and the flute has breathed it's first sound we move on. The shaping of the flute is done entirely by hand and eye using a small hand plane. Some flute makers like to use a larger hand plane at first but we prefer the smaller plane to shape the flute's body. The process of hand planning is not a quick one and if not careful you can take some skin off of your hands.
As we continue to shape the flute we are continually checking to make sure that is meets the style of flutes we make in our shop.  Tom's flute here is a smaller flute in length and the bore of the flute is not as large with the goal to end up with a nice sounding flute in the key of A. When the flute is going to be shorter in length we are concerned with the overall dimensions of the flute. We do not want to end up with a short fat looking flute. With Tom's flute we have decided to add a nice taper from the Windway to the Foot of the flute.
After several hours of hand planning and hand sanding we end up with the final shape of the flute. At this point you can see the subtle taper we have added and the initial playing holes have been drilled to identify where they will live on this flute. We will tune these at a later date. We also decided to add four tone holes in the foot of the flute for two reasons. One was that we did not want  to have a flute that was too short in length and second, we wanted to have these holes represent the four directions of Mother Earth. From here we will hand sand the flute to a fine finish, add placement for ornamental additions and any stone work to be added. When finished we hope to deliver to Tom Mitchell a finished Native American Styled flute that he can enjoy playing as well as one that he can be proud of.
  After the tuning is completed and we have hand sanded the flute we finish the outside of the flute with 10+ coats of lacquer. We hand sand in between several of the coats to make sure our finish is soft to the touch. At this point we have added a single tear drop shaped turquoise stone between the #2 and #3 playing holes. We added black deer skin braiding to the foot area of the flute just above the tuning holes.
The bear fetish is getting its last coats of lacquer and we will be adding a couple of hanging medallions of horse hair to the center of the flute. This will add a nice finished touch to this flute. Once this is completed we will attach the bear fetish and check it over before we ship it to Tom. Because Tom chose a flute to be in the key of A it is much shorter than other flutes in other keys. After having the chance to test the flutes playability we are very pleased with how this flute sounds. Please take a moment to click on the MP3 player just below and hear for the  first time just how pleasant a Port Orford Cedar flute plays. We are very pleased with how this flute is finishing up and we hope that its new home in Oregon brings many hours of pleasure to its new owner.
Finally Tom's flute is finished and ready to ship. It has been a pleasure to create a flute based on Tom's needs and desires. We only hope that he is as pleased with it as we are. Tuned to the key of A we really like how this flute came out. It is a pleasure to play in our opinion. |
This Walnut flute has been selected for the Juried Portion of the Western Design Conference to be held at the Snow King Resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This flute has been finished with three square cabachons that are turquoise with gold coloring. This flute will be availabe to be seen and purchased at the Wester Design show. If you are interested in this flute please contact us via email, 
