Caring for wooden flutes in a dry environment (Spain)
I picked up two wooden flutes at an estate sale in Connecticut about a month ago. One is a blackwood Casey Burns D flute in four sections with silver rings and a tuning slide. The other is an ironwood Mark Hoza D flute in two sections with no rings and no slide. These are my first wooden flutes and I’m very excited about them! Previously I played a cheap Bohm system flute.
As luck would have it, I moved to Madrid on March 9, a few days before the virus really blew up here. Now of course we’re all quarantined and I’ve been trying to make the best of things by playing my flutes as much as I can without annoying the neighbors.
Any advice on how to care for wooden flutes that have been moved from the relatively humid Northeastern US to dry Madrid? I have bore oil, cork grease, thread, wax and cloths to clean the flutes out with, but I never had anyone really show me what to do with all of it and I don’t want the flutes to crack while I’m here for the foreseeable future. How often and how much to oil? How to store? How tight should the tenons be when you put the flute together? That kind of thing. Any advice would be really appreciated!
I’ve noticed the tenons have gotten a lot tighter since I’ve gotten here, which is the opposite of what I expected, but maybe it’s because I’m playing them more here than I was at home. Also, the Hoza flute was already cracked and repaired before I bought it. There’s a crack in the headjoint running through the embouchure hole on both sides that was filled in with something that looks like superglue. It’s barely noticeable but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to oil that part or not.
Thanks in advance and hope you’re all doing okay.