Mike McArthur <mikemc@...> wrote:
I don't want to stomp on anyone's feet, but my Dad is a woodturner by
trade and although I don't know a huge amount about such things myself
(except that it took him an hour to make a beautiful Kauri cleaning rod
for my flute, an enormous amount of work went into it), I DO recall him
clearly telling me a number of times to never put olive oil onto wooden
items. Ordinary vegetable oil is OK but apparently olive oil tends to
cause the wood to discolour and gives bowls a horrible taste.
I don't want to step on anyone's feet either, but people have been putting
olive oil on musical instruments for hundreds of years, and it really
hasn't been a problem to date.
Olive oil is not a great tasting oil, but you should compare it to flax
oil (that's what health food people call linseed oil, a popular
woodturner's oil).
On a more serious note, any oil you use on a flute should have some
vitamin E added to it. This will prevent discolorations, rancid smells,
etc. One of my favorite oil mixes is equal parts almond oil and olive oil.
You want the purest, cleanest oils availiable. In the UK, you should have
no trouble finding medical grade olive and almond oil at a pharmacy. I
usually add the juice from one vitamin E capsule to 1 ounce (30ml or
125MHz or 72kG or 12 fathoms) of oil.
In the US, you can buy "sweet oil" at the pharmacy, which is ultra clean,
virtually oderless, olive oil. I mix this with Hain brand almond oil
(cleanest looking almond oil I've been able to find).
Some people oil bores with pure almond oil, others use pure linseed oil.
Remember, you must always use RAW linseed oil. BOILED linseed oil contains
toxic chemicals, and hardens to a laquer like coating in the flute bore.
Other popular oils include walnut oil and peanut oil. Mineral oils,
vaseline, and WD40 are to be avoided, as is dunking the flute in beer or
just pouring it through the bore (a common Irish flutist custom, believe
it or not).
If the instrument has any keys and pads, you must be extra careful not to
get oil on the pads.
I hope you dont intend drinking from your flute, but discolouration
would be annoying. The reason probably has to do with olive oils low
'freezing' point.
For recorders, you must periodically suck in on the flute to clear the
windway, so you will definatly taste your oil. You clear a baroque flute
the same way. First time I gave a silver Boehm flute a quick suck to clear
the headjoint, I thought I was going to be sick. The silver residue tastes
horrible!
Joseph S. Wisniewski | The views expressed are my own, and don't reflect
Ford Motor Company | those of the Ford Motor Co. or affiliates.
Project Sapphire | Trans Am, Daytona, Bonneville, and IROC are just
jwisniew@... | races, won by people driving Ford cars!
