How do I make a wooden tube/pipe?

[Stanleythecat]

Can anyone suggest how I might make a wooden tube?

I am still on a quest to make a simple flute from our indigenous species (the flute design doesn't have to be native just the materials) and need to make a tube with a bore somewhere between 1/2 -1". I have tried elder our only native hollow pithed shrub (please let me know if there are others) but wasn't overly successful, so I wondered if I could hollow a slightly harder wood in some way.

Here is a link to the flute I am trying to make:

http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/topic/43822/Make--Native-American-Indian-Flute--Northern-Mexico

I have done a working version in bamboo... but good bamboo is hard to find.

My rule of indigenous species might seem prohibitive but stems it from the fact that I am a ranger by profession, I work with a couple of mental health projects and schools and use some of these skills (green woodwork, foraging, primitive skills) as a vehicle to get a wider appreciation for the countryside. It allows for greater accessibility and the feeling amongst those who want to learn that they can do it and they are not reliant on anything to be able to achieve it, it grows under their nose!

The making of your own musical instrument is another taste of alchemy from the hedgerow, as with friction fire lighting, the simple 'useless' stick (although you have to learn which are the right ones and that's the trick) turns in to something of value... then do all the sticks start to look different?

Those of us who appreciate this already know this already but for those who don't it can have a really positive effect on their happiness.

Sorry for the rant!! I'm not a missionary! Just on a mission!

Hope you can help.

Leo

 

[Retired Member southey]

How about field maple? has a pithy center.

 

[HHazeldean]

Elder is best imo and the pith can easily be removed with a stick or a hot poker. Good luck with the project though!

 

[Stanleythecat]

How about field maple? has a pithy center.

I didn't know that. Will take a look. Is it more or less pithy than elder?

I love working with sycamore for carving etc, this is probably a similar wood.

Leo

 

[Harvestman]

It isn't native, but I've recently found that Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria) has a pith that can be removed, although the resulting hole is rather small.

 

[Stanleythecat]

Elder is best imo and the pith can easily be removed with a stick or a hot poker. Good luck with the project though!

Thanks HD, my problem is getting a large enough bore and a long enough tube. I have some long drills which are useful and follow the pith to a degree, just wondering if a denser wood might be needed...

Leo

 

[sxmolloy]

Have you tried using Willow or Sycamore? You can remove the bark, then carve the wood, then replace the bark. There's a thread on here somewhere on how to use these woods to make a whistle. I've just had a quick look but couldn't find it. It would be the same principle for a flute I imagine, just a little more carving.

 

[HHazeldean]

Elder ends up with quite a large hole that I have found and this can be good/bad depending on what you want to do with it. For a flute, then this would be probably be better.

 

[Retired Member southey]

It's a good lump out of the middle to get a scraper in to enlarge the hole, best to find the lower branches i found, we had one in the garden of our last house and used pruned lower branches to make handles for pots and buckets, very nice to work.

 

[JohnC]

I have seen somewhere, one of these flutes being made by splitting the wood then gouging the centre out, before joining the two half back. That might allow you to use a harder pithless wood..

 

[Stanleythecat]

Hi John

Yes the native American flutes seem to be made this way, just wondering if there might be a way of leaving it intact before I decide to go down the cleaving root. Maybe some annual plants are an option, like burdock. I don't have any knowledge really of primitive instruments and wonder how and what our own ancestors might have used. As I said in the beginning it needs to be accessible. Bone is another option but I really want to stick to plants as they are easier to get hold of.

Leo

 

[gregorach]

You could possibly burn the bore out with a hot poker, but it'll take a while...

 

[Runestone]

Thanks HD, my problem is getting a large enough bore and a long enough tube. I have some long drills which are useful and follow the pith to a degree, just wondering if a denser wood might be needed...

Leo

Even if you get wood with too small a bore (like the Monkey puzzle suggested). Can you not widen it out with a piece of dowel wrapped in rough sandpaper.

Chris

 

[Gailainne]

The tribes that use blow pipes drill out 2m plus lengths of hard wood using hand drills, so its doable . Maybe use a hand bow drill (firelighting style) to drill the hole first, a branch with a pithy centre should help keep the drill centered, then sand the outer to the final diameter?

 

[mrcharly]

Long auger bit, drill out a branch, then whittle outside down to a suitable wall thickness?

I've made a couple of flutes out of plumbing pipe, using this calculator to determine hole sizes and positions:

http://www.cwo.com/~ph_kosel/flutomat.html

 

[rimmer]

try hasel it seems to be soft and pithy in the middle

 

[British Red]

Dead easy to do on elder in 2' plus lengths


6. Elder tube by British Red, on Flickr

Get a piece of threaded rod and just tap the pith out then rub up and down for a neat hole

Red

 

[merrygold85]

Elder is great but have you considered using bamboo?

 

[HHazeldean]

I don't think that Bamboo is an indigenous species. Hmmmmm.......

 

[Stanleythecat]

Have you tried using Willow or Sycamore? You can remove the bark, then carve the wood, then replace the bark. There's a thread on here somewhere on how to use these woods to make a whistle. I've just had a quick look but couldn't find it. It would be the same principle for a flute I imagine, just a little more carving.

Thanks Malloy

Slightly different technique for a flute as it needs to be about 20-30cm long, it's quite hard to strip an undamaged tube of bark over this length... great trick tho!

Leo