Construction of a Black Walnut Flute

Today I will take you on an adventure on the making of a Black Walnut Flute.

This Flute is tuned to the Key of F#, and has a One Inch bore.

To get a more detailed view , click on any photograph to enlarge.

I start out with a 2 inch square piece of Black Walnut that is 24 inches long.

The next step is to split that 2 inch square in two..done with a saw.

The next step you can see in the illustration drawing, is the routing out of the Slow Air Chamber and the Sound Chamber, this is the bottom half of the flute.


The next step is the routing out of the top part of the flute and cutting the Air Exit and Entrance holes as the drawing shows.


The flute is then glued back together tightly and then shaped and a finish put on it after drilling the fingering holes and tuning.



This is the finished flute with the Block (howling Wolf Head) on it, to channel the Air from the Slow Air Chamber, over the Sound hole leading into the sound chamber.



Also shown is the fingering holes that are drilled in and tuning the flute by the placement and size of each fingering hole.( a process that takes alot of experience, and practice to do).



I next cut 4 pieces of Iridescent Mother of Pearl in a diamond shape and inlaid them into the Walnut wood, sanded down flush with the wood and polished.

A close up look at the Block( Wolf Head) carved from Aromatic Red Cedar, mounted on a block of Black Walnut.

I know I didn't give you all the details of constructing the flute, there are just too many , and practice, practice, makes one become better at it.

Black Walnut Flute

Black Walnut Flute
As seen From Top

Close up of (Block ) Red Cedar Carved Wolf

Click on the images above for a larger view.

As you may have noticed I haven't posted in a while, I have been rather busy making another Flute and also sorting through things in getting ready for our Yard Sale that we had this past weekend...well...the yard sale is History....and I finally finished the newest Flute made of Black Walnut with a Block of a Carved Wolf made from Aromatic Red Cedar.

This Flute is tuned to the key of "G" and is about 21 and 1/2 inches long overall and has a 3/4 inch bore.

If you have your sound turned on when you arrive at my blog site..the music you hear is the sound of a Native American Flute being played...what a wonderful mellow sound it gives...so relaxing .

Finishing a Project

This is a Buffalo ( American Bison ) that I had started about seven years ago by cutting out the rough figure from a block of Black Walnut, with the intention of doing a detailed carving of, however I set it aside until the "Mood" was proper and the piece would show me how it was to be.

For some reason I kept drawing a blank in my mind so I put it up on a shelf till the vision would reappear to me once again and speak clearly to me...well it just didn't happen right away , so I moved on to other projects that were begging to be created.

I had almost forgotten about this wonderful piece of wood till after I had finished the last two flutes that I have posted here recently, and was drawing a blank once again as to what new project to begin...suddenly I heard this small voice from across my work shop...."Hey Bob...remember me?"...looking across the shop my eyes rested upon that rough cut Black Walnut blank of a Buffalo..and it began to speak to me once again.."It is time for you to finish what you started seven years ago..follow me I will show you how it will be."

I walked over to the shelf, picked it up , and could again see the vision of a Buffalo and just how it should look, so carving knives in hand I began to carve ever so carefully and precise, feeling the warmth of the wood admiring the grain and working the contures of the body shape with the grain and began to envision the depth of cuts and sanding to achieve a three dimensional figure that would represent the look and feel of a real Buffalo...well after about 5 days of hand carving..I think I have achieved a rather realistic rendition..and anatomically correct Buffalo...except..maybe I should have made the head a bit larger....click on the photographs for a larger and closer view..

The Buffalo stands Three and Three Quarter inches tall by Six inches long....and in case you didn't notice...it is a Bull Buffalo.

Rear view of Buffalo

View of Underside

View of Other Side

Catching Up

Black Walnut Flute Displayed on Deer Antler/Skull Stand

Close up of Carved Buffalo Block (Bird) carved from Cedar

Aromatic Red Cedar Flute on Deer Antler/Skull Stand

Close Up showing Details of Cedar Flute

Close Up of Horse (Hand Carved Cedar) Block

Click on the photographs to enlarge for better Detail.

It has been a game of "Catchup" since I got out of the Hospital, the garden went wild weed wise and the Zucchini and Yellow Squash grew to enormous size and had to be picked and thrown away making room for new growth to be picked at the smaller size for eating and selling.

I finally got caught up in the garden and was able to again get back to finishing up on two Flutes that I had started. Pictured above are two flutes, one (Top one) is Black Walnut with a 1" bore and a hand carved Aromatic Red Cedar Block (Buffalo-American Bison) and 4 diamond shaped pieces of Turquoise that I cut and inlaid into the Walnut and sanded and polished flush with the Flute's surface for decoration.

The Second Flute Pictured is made from Aromatic Red Cedar with a Horse that is hand Carved for the Block.

I am slowly healing and getting some better every day but still have to take it a bit easy and be patient till I get my strength back and continue on with my creations.....thank you to all who sent me good wishes and thoughts...."I shall Return" to some semblance of normalcy soon.