How to Make an Easy Flute

Use bamboo to make your own simple flute.

The flute has a very long history. Early flutes were often made of hollowed tree branches, bird's bones or hollow reeds. Metal flutes came along later with the invention of metal alloys and metalworking, eventually resulting in the modern flute that musicians use in orchestras. However, the modern metal flute is too complicated for someone wishing to make his own flute. While children and artists can easily make flutes from cardboard and PVC pipe, one of the easiest and most attractive flutes comes from bamboo. These flutes require almost no carving and only a little measuring.

Things You'll Need

• Dried bamboo reed
• Hacksaw
• Grease pencil
• Measuring tape
• Propane torch
• Old ¼ inch screwdriver
• Metal rebar
• Heavy leather glove
• Fine sandpaper

Instructions

1. Make 2 marks on your dried bamboo about 18 inches apart. Both marks should fall right above a bamboo joint. Cut through your marks slowly and firmly with a hacksaw; the top of your bamboo rod should have a fibrous blockage and the other end should be open and hollow.

2. Put on a heavy leather glove and heat the last 3 or 4 inches of a piece of metal rebar with a propane torch. Slip the rebar into the open end of your bamboo, pushing slowly and firmly against any blocks inside of it. Leave the block at the other end of the bamboo intact.

3. Measure 1 inch from the closed end of your bamboo and make a grease pencil mark. Measure 6 inches from your first mark and make a second mark. Make 4 or 5 more marks below your second mark about ½ inch from each other.

4. Heat the tip of your screwdriver with your propane torch; put your glove on before heating. Press the heated tip against your first mark, pushing until the tip burns through. Repeat with your other marks.

5. Roll a piece of sandpaper into cylinder and slip it inside of each hole. Rotate it to make the holes smooth. Sand the ends of your new flute as well. Your bamboo flute is finished.

Tips & Warnings

• To make the same flute from cardboard or PVC use an awl or hand drill respectively to make the holes. You'll also have to block the top of each of these materials with either a cardboard circle or a screw-on PVC pipe cap.

References

• Mark's Hep: The Plumber's Pipe
• Think Quest: Cardboard Flute
• Back Woods Home: Make a Musical Bamboo Flute