In this episode, Wes restores a flute Headjoint for a client. By far one of the worst headjoint damages I have ever seen. Was fun to think outside the box for the best way to restore. Loved using the Mini Z once again.
As a former saxophone player (I sold my horn several years ago) I laud what you can accomplish! I will always have a soft spot in my heart for band instruments, especially the woodwinds like tenor sax and flute (which I played). My high school and college band years were some of the best of my life, and I'm glad to see someone like you out there fixing instruments with such skill so players can just play their music to the best of their ability. New subscriber here!
Wes, I don’t have a musical bone in my body. Couldn’t make music if my life depended on it. I am now retired from driving truck so you know I have a different look at things. What I do enjoy is watching a craftsman doing his work. It is impressive what you do with a bent up piece of metal. I stumbled on to your site and keep coming back to watch the magic happen. Thanks for your time and energy. Keep up the good work sir.
Man, that flute headjoint is at the point where, if it were a student flute, I'd just dig a headjoint from the bonepile and fit it to the flute. But I don't work in a shop that does restoration-level work. That was a gnarly repair.
I've officially watched just about every one of your videos over the last 2 weeks. I need more. I hate to see broken instruments, but I love watching them get fixed. Not often I watch non-prospecting/science videos this religiously. You've got a special talent, a wonderful attitude about your profession, and a knack for communicating. Thanks for being you, Wes 🙃
I played trumpet in high school and teaching myself flute right now. Watching how you work these brass/silver instruments back from some nasty damage is both fascinating and satisfying. Take care of your hands and wrists. So much force needed to re-shape metal. Thanks for posting these wonderful videos.
I don't play any instruments and have no music background, but I would love to do this. I'm surprised how much force you have to exert yet have to have such a light touch to fix those dings and bends and all. Keep up the good work.
First I too am impressed with all the hand work; so much is done by feel. As an aside the constant reworking is because of rebound and plastic (de)formation. When you have a substance like brass, when you hit it with a hammer, or try and bend it back in place, it will not stay in place but rebound slightly; if these instruments were a solid piece of metal you could simply over bend it so it would rebound to the correct position. Further, brass also tends to want to hold it's new deformed shape, so you have to constantly rework the metal to get it back to where you want it. Finally, there is the issue that when you hammer brass it will in a sense stretch (eg the walls will become thinner, so if the outside diameter remains the same, the piece will become longer). What this man does is truly an art form.
Your attention to details and carefully working the metal is incredible. I don't think most people realize just how delicate and touchy that metal can be.
Your videos make me want to take on repair! I work as a band director at the moment. Always love working on the instruments at the school, as we don't have a repair shop on our island. Thanks for the tips and inspiration!
Totally blown away. Knowing when to give pressure, feeling the piece, knowing where to tap with hammer, good eye, knowing the sounds of tapping, i never knew how much skill is needed in repairing but boy i do now. A craftsman of the highest order.
In the late 80's I attended a music summer camp. As a quirky little flautist boy I think I wasn't cool enough in the eyes of older boys. So someone decided to smack my flute against the back of a chair and left the bent flute to be found by me. I was broken. Whole summer camp was ruined because I didn't have my instrument. The damage looked exactly like on the video and it got fixed. I wonder if there's another little kid whos music career you just managed to save by repairing that instrument. ❤ from Finland!
Hello, I was impressed with your work and I think as you said at the end of the video. I'm an apprentice Luthier on wind instruments. it is a brilliant profession. What fascinates me most is thinking outside the box. I'm an electronics technician, but I love repairing dentist handpieces and I'm increasingly passionate about repairing wind musical instruments. I'm a flute student, I love the sound of this instrument. Congratulations, you are very good!!!!
I once tripped on a speaker tripod and trod on my flute, so the sight of that headjoint brings back similar feelings of horror! So good to see how this was repaired and appreciate the process that much more.
I'm a tool maker, machinist, and clockwork specialist. With that I do a lot of hand work with copper, brass, silver, etc. The line of "sometimes when working with old stuff you can't get a new part" rings extremely true with the watches, clocks, music boxes, vintage mechanical cameras, etc. I try to save everything possible and from there I make new what is needed using most of the same techniques that were used decades, or even centuries, ago to restore the item to great working condition. A like to think the few marks that may remain add character to an antique item that has seen multiple lifetimes of use.
My dad was trained as a blacksmith in high school. When he was drafted and stationed in England he read every auto body book the library had. He is a remarkable body man, several car clubs would borrow him for rust work repair. He uses the same techniques. He always told me lighter hammering is better, you dont stretch the metal as much. Hence the tiny mallet. I really enjoy watching you work.
I know this video is almost a year old, so you probably won't see this... But as a former flautist, I found this VERY interesting! I had done similar damage to my flute. Didn't have the damage to the tenon, but, about where that dent further up was on this one, mine was dented all the way to the other side... I had set it on my stand and turned to get my water, but I guess I bumped it or the stand and it fell of onto the leg of the stand (one of those fold up/travel style ones). I couldn't believe the shop got it out, though there was WAY worse of a scar than this one! Played just fine, though, so I was happy (and more importantly, my parents didn't have to kill me for making them buy me another one)! Always wondered how they did it! Thank you so much for sharing!
Boy, that brass sure is malleable! I'm a bit of a blacksmith but I have worked with some types of brass, copper and sterling and all of them work harden considerably faster compared to what I see here. All I can say about your knowledge and your skill level is "Wow!"
You answered a question that I had been thinking about for a while- work hardening. I'm a non-musician and untrained techie who thoroughly enjoys your videos.
New subscriber here; just found your channel!... First, whatever you are doing to make your voice/volume so loud, PLEASE don't change a thing; you are one of the only people I can hear on RU-vid!.... I'm a life-long musician (since 1958); I love and respect all musical instruments, as you seem to do.(I liked the Who's music, it made me sick every time I saw them smash their instruments on stage). I play, and own dozens of instruments (a couple could use your expertise!). I have 2 saxes, flutes, pianos, 12 guitars, harps, and most keyboards, But, I can't fix ANY of them... It's great knowing there is someone like you, out there doing what you are doing. If I were young once again, I would pay you, to become an apprentice. I hope you are able to pass your talent and passion on to some of the younger generation....
As a student, I recently had to do a repair similar to this, but not nearly as bad. Being at a school, I just stuck a drumstick in the vice and used that as my mandril. Ended up working out really well. Thanks for the info Wes.
Mate another video demonstrating your incredible ability to bring a damaged instrument back to perfection. Keep these coming I thoroughly enjoy watching you skills. Cheers from kangaroo land.
Nice job! I have repair training, machine shop experience, and have watched my own repairman at work. I am sure tube diameter is critical to intonation! I have done very little dent work as a high school band director.
Sad you're far too far away, but fun and pleasure to watch working you brillant on several instruments. Great job on the flute. Since I'm flutist myself the first image nearly gave me a heart stroke....
Back in 1970, i was running through on my alto flute a composition before leaving to go to a studio to record the piece for an album of mine. After playing, I took the head off and shook out the spittle that was in it, and hit the edge of a door in doing so. Made quite a big dent as I''m sure, you can imagine. I picked up a broom, and with the handle, pushed the flute head onto it. It worked perfectly, The dent was no longer visible.
I have zero interest in musical instruments repair, but that said you have created a metal working video that is interesting and informative about a subject you obviously are quite passionate about. Thanks fornthe ride along and the time and effort in all these quality videos you UL.
I played French Horn (school's) and (my own) trumpet for six years in pubic schools in 50's and 60's. Whenever a student dropped their instrument, Mr. Morneau would calmly suggest "Leave it there so you don't drop it again." Our instruments were fresh every school year, new strings, drum heads, flute and clarinet and brass pads etc. You remind me of those of those times. I would work for you for free if I could.
Your Skill and Know How is impressive. That comes from EXPERIENCE. Hours Spent hands on. There is no substitute and no machine By itself could do it. When Instruments suffer damage, You don’t have to junk them. Unless deliberately damaged, most Damage can be repaired by someone With the skills and right tools. Thanks for sharing a little of what Goes on behind the scenes.🎷
Been a repair tech for over 20 years, but have not repaired in about 6 years. I am enjoying seeing your solutions and work. I miss the work, but could not make a living in CA and being a sub contractor. LOL "sometimes you have to fix this old stuff".....can you say Olds Valve Trombones?
Does this work harden the metal or would this flute be softer in that spot and be more likely to bend in the future? I grew up learning the flute in the 5th grade and it pains me to see such damage but you did it a service bringing it back up to standard.
any working is going to "harden" the area making it more brittle. this is just so very thin, it's going to be all the way through most likely as well vs just at the surface like a peen.
Sometimes you have to love the youtube algorithms. This is the kind of work and skill needed, that if someone asks how much force is you're using, the answer is always just enough😁😁
Great job. But late in my 44 year career I discovered that spinning it out on the lathe (like a trumpet bell is made) is much faster and gets a great result.
Great lesson, thank you. I don't understand how you took a deep crease out and ended up with a smaller diameter than the original? If I had tried that I would have probably ended up with a bell end! How did you achieve that?
This reminded me of an old Generation brass tin whistle in"D" I sat on back in 1984. I straightened it by forcing a 7.62 Nato cartridge through the bore of the whistle. Never got out all the creases that way but it was perfectly straight and playable afterwards, in fact still is.
Thanks for showing us your process of straightening out that flute head. I guess I was lucky to be able to straighten a couple of (ex private school, NSW) Armstrong flutes that had been sat on using some spare sound post material for a double bass. It gave us a couple of nice enough flutes to enjoy when I had finished cleaning, lubricating & adjusting them (I still need to change the pads though for them to be better). I'll stick to working on violin family of instruments for anyone else though. 🙂
I have done auto body repair for over 40 years now. I have honed my metal skills and understand most of what you are doing even though you work with different types of metals than I. My question is time, money vs. replacing. Some of theses instruments you repair looks like maybe the repair cost could exceed replacement cost. Guess I am wondering how profitable is this trade. Might be something I would like to think about doing after retirement.
Be careful what you wish for. Most of the work is student stuff. The same bent bridge keys on clarinets. Bent octave keys on saxophones. Pushed in 2nd valve slides trumpets. Can get boring after a while. Rarely does one get a nice Old Selmer Mk6 or Mt Vernon Bach trumpet. You'd be surprised how much tools cost and almost every job requires a special tool. Parts a worse. Sax pads in mm sizes from around 5 or 6 up to the huge ones for baritone sax's. Then they come in different thicknesses and then different resonators if any. That's just for sax. There's pads for flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon and pics. Thousands of different springs if ya pile them all together from water key to needle. Water key corks. One can spend a few thousands just on parts and the next day someone will walk in with something you don't have. It's very hard to establish a private owned shop. Working for a store is usually easier in that sense but then you have to deal with the owners who are often clueless as to what you really do. Once worked at a store owned by a husband and wife. I noticed the wife had brass earrings that were dull. I asked her if she'd like me to polish them. She says, "can you do that?" I'm thinking, you have no idea what you pay me for.
I just happened across your videos as one of RU-vid's suggestions. It's amazing to watch you work. I think the first one I saw was one where you were repairing a badly beaten French Horn. I watched, mainly out of curiosity, "How on earth is he going to fix THAT?" I expected to see a lot of heating and shaping. I've watched a few of your videos now, and I don't think I've yet seen you use heat. I'm curious where you learned your craft.
I have a friend and he likes to sometimes do sword movements with his flute. He was doing these one time during marching band practice and his head joint ended up slipping out of the body and falling onto the asphalt. He luckily had a second flute that he could use for the rest of the season.
