Binding & Caring For a Wood Flute

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Vlad Cardema. Today I'm going to show you how I make these Peruvian flutes. I specialize in making these flutes, and I make didgeridoos and drums. But today, I'll show you how to make a Peruvian style flute out of black bamboo. I had a little crack here, and what I did was I put some glue in there. If I squeeze it, you can see beads of glue coming out, and if I just leave it like that, then that crack might open up again, so what I've learned is a technique of binding. What I do is I take a piece of string and I loop it like that, and I place it on the flute, and this creates a bind that's like a fisherman's, I learned this technique from a fisherman who was making flies. Instead of explaining it, I'll just do it, making sure that I have enough room to make the mouthpiece, so I'm going to go down a little bit. So if I'm going to go this way, then I have to put the loop over here where I am. To take care of your flute, it's important to oil it periodically. Sometimes the oils from your hands is good enough to keep it oiled, or you can get some olive oil, or linseed oil, or almond oil. Almond oil's actually good, you pour it in there, and you take a piece of cloth with a stick and you make sure it's coated all over. What the oil does is it protects it from moisture, and moisture is a flute's worst enemy, because it will make the flute crack. If your flute is cracked, it will sound bad, or you won't get a sound from it. "