re: heating the wax and the hairdryer idea

A hairdryer might not be hot enough, but, if you know someone who does stamping (i.e. rubbing stamping) or scrapbooking, they might have a "heat gun"--it looks like a hairdryer, but it packs a wallop. Stampers use it to melt things without burning the paper, and it would avoid soot marks on your flute. You can also pick one up pretty inexpensively at a craft store.

I'd try this on my old Gemeinhardt student model (which had only a loose cork until recently), but something else just went wrong. Bummer--it was my old friend, but it's probably not even worth repairing (the repair would cost more than the flute it worth).

-Judy

According to the posts there (which started out as a why to temporarily reseal a leaking headjoint cork), you unscrew the crown, and drop in a few flakes of candle or bees wax, and then heat the head to melt it, swirling the head gently in a circle to get an even coating. They are still debating what exactly it does, and why it works, but so far the consensus seems overwhelmingly positive, especially in combination with the Zirconium stoppers and crowns made by Robert Bigio.

Oh goodness...please DO NOT do this. If your headcork is leaking get it fixed or replaced by someone who knows what they are doing. A leaking headjoint cork is death to tone and response so sealing any leak will make an improvement. That being said, the most improtant part that needs to seal is the stopper plate side closest to the embochure hole.

It is not uncommon to wax a whole new headjoint cork before reinserting it into the headjoint. It helps it to slide in place easier and provides a good seal WHEN THE CORK IS FIT PROPERLY IN THE FIRST PLACE..

Don't glob wax on the other end, or some tech (like me) will groan, "what idiot did this?" when I have to fix it and clean all that out of there...

If you seal the wrong end and leave a gap at the other stopper plate end, you WILL suffer response problems and funky third register problems...

People who don't know can debate all day long as to why it works or doesn't work rather than just asking someone who knows to tell them...


Joe B

Thanks Joe. I was curious about this whole thing, though must admit, I was not going to try it. I am glad you just confirmed this

Well, I'll stay away from it too, though admittedly it is quite interesting. Even Sir James seemed to like what it did to the heads.

Edit that ::points up:: I just had a look back through the posts regarding this cork thing, and apparently I remembered incorrectly....Sir James never seems to have tried it, or commented on the wax side of things. He did suggest using a hairdryer to temporarily get a leaking cork to seal, but other than that, has been absent from the conversation. Sorry for any confusion.

Simon Santiao of Nagahara Flutes on Wax use with corks:

Hello again. Niall is correct. We do use candlewax in our cork assemblies. This was actually suggested by Morrie Backun (from Backun Musical in Vancouver, BC). He's quite a "doctor of musical instrument repair" as Kanichi put it. This not only fills it the natural irregularities of the cork, but it seals the cork and prevents the absorption of moisture. Normally a cork will expand and contract due to changes in moisture, and this eventually shrinks the cork and prevents it from returning to it's "normal" size ( where it was at the time of installation). We use everyday unscented candlewax, but Kanichi also recommends Chapstick... cherry is his favorite. This way, your flute will smell good after you play. ;0) Simon DISCLAIMER: Please do not take your headjoints apart and try this process on your own. Bring it to a local tech who is qualified, experienced, and confident about doing this. Candlewax (when still warm and semi-liquid) makes installation of the cork assembly relatively easy... BUT, once it sets/hardens, it is probably very difficult to move the cork (as Niall also stated). This may result in damage or "denting from the inside". You will probably also void your manufacturer's warranty if you try to make any modification on your own. Be careful.

<Added>

James Galway's response to "I have never heard it done in repair manuals" in regards to the Wax issue.

Could it be you are missing the point here? What we are talking about in the discussion is the cork being a really tight fit. This has nothing to do with air escaping. If there is air escaping you will be able to push the cork out with your finger as i just did on my Louis Lot flute.. It has everything to do with sealing the tube really well so it gives a much better tone. What we are talking about here is a very tight fitting cork. If the cork is too tight try using some grease to get it into place.

This is a really long topic that has gone on for days. I would recommend joining the Galway forum at groups.yahoo.com, go back a few days and read the posts. It started with a Bigio stopper discussion in July and went on to fixation on the corks with wax in August and then people started to wonder how wax and a bigio stopper would work... now it's about bees and beeswax. :)

<Added>

That should have been Simon Santiago

Simon Santiao of Nagahara Flutes on Wax use with corks: Hello again. Niall is correct. We do use candlewax in our cork assemblies. This was actually suggested by Morrie Backun (from Backun Musical in Vancouver, BC). He's quite a "doctor of musical instrument repair" as Kanichi put it. This not only fills it the natural irregularities of the cork, but it seals the cork and prevents the absorption of moisture. Normally a cork will expand and contract due to changes in moisture, and this eventually shrinks the cork and prevents it from returning to it's "normal" size ( where it was at the time of installation). We use everyday unscented candlewax, but Kanichi also recommends Chapstick... cherry is his favorite. This way, your flute will smell good after you play. ;0) Simon DISCLAIMER: Please do not take your headjoints apart and try this process on your own. Bring it to a local tech who is qualified, experienced, and confident about doing this. Candlewax (when still warm and semi-liquid) makes installation of the cork assembly relatively easy... BUT, once it sets/hardens, it is probably very difficult to move the cork (as Niall also stated). This may result in damage or "denting from the inside". You will probably also void your manufacturer's warranty if you try to make any modification on your own. Be careful.

Ok let's dispel this nonsense, Nagahara, Galway and the like and stop throwing out senseless speculation. (since this is all a lot of jibberish..)

1. Paraffin wax, or beeswax for that matter will fill in the pores of cork, BUT NOT BY PUTTING IT INTO THE END OF THE HEADJOINT. The cork compressing in the tube is what seals the headjoint!

You need to apply it to the cork directly and while spinning it allow it to fill the pores of the cork by using the back side of some sandpaper or other similar method. The heat generated, added with the pressure forces the wax into the cork but only a little amount. It pretty much only fills in the surface pores..

2. Why does moisture ruin a cork? Because some idiot didn't taper the cork properly when fitting it into the headjoint..Head joint corks are cylindrical, Headjoints are cone shaped. When you don't taper the cork, the crown side end is overly compressed and moisture will leak in on the other side slowly ruining your cork. (then as the procedure describes, you add more wax to a headcork that is already setup for failure...that's just stupid!)

The cork MUST be tapered to the tube. It is MOST, repeat MOST, important that the cork is firmly sealed at the side closest to the embochure hole. A little wax will help provide a moisture barrier AND make it easier to position the cork. If you want to further seal it off, (which isn't really necessary if you fit it properly), you can add a little heat to slightly melt that surface layer of wax for better seal and make it harder to move it.

3. The idea is to prevent moisture from getting to the cork. If it's fit properly and has a little bit of wax on it's surface, that is most definately sufficient.

4. Simon left out that the procedure he followed must be performed with the headjoint aligned crown to tenon pointing from north to south and that the headcork should be only be wax coated when the moon is full. If the procedure took the tech more than a half hour, the headjoint position must be reversed and an incantation and dance must be performed..

This is why I stopped visiting the Galway voodoo list. My head hurts from reading it and banging my head against the wall..

Joe B

Hey, I know this is off-topic, and I'm sorry, but Joe, I passed your recent review of the Azumi flutes along to a friend (I hope you don't mind), and they found it really helpful....They wanted me to thank you for the information....So thanks Joe!

1. Paraffin wax, or beeswax for that matter will fill in the pores of cork, BUT NOT BY PUTTING IT INTO THE END OF THE HEADJOINT. The cork compressing in the tube is what seals the headjoint!

What is being described in the Galway forum is that they are taking flutes with well fitted corks or bigio stoppers, taking off the crowns, adding beeswax, applying heat to the tube, and allowing the beeswax to seep into the cork (without touching the cork assembly).

My Muramatsu flute tech (Muramatsu factory tech) does this and so have a few people in that thread that did flute repair, with one totally against it.

It's just wax and since it is seeping into corks between the cork and the wall of the flute, there obviously isn't a good seal in the flutes involved and they get a better seal as a result.


<Added>

In the bigio stoppers the wax only goes down to the first O-ring, but still people doing it claim to get an improvement.

Voodoo practices do get desired results at times. ;)

>>Voodoo practices do get desired results at times.
<<

Yes, even if they are just imagined results..

I've seen these with the wax globbed in there at the top. What pain to clean out. It's still hocus pocus and mumbo jumbo and bears no affect except (the placebo effect).

In other words, It's all in your head..You want to be better so it is..But there is absolutely no science or magic by adding a little wax.

Joe B

So, do you think it worked on the student hj cork because there were gaps, or it wasn't fitting correctly?

Possibly, or it could be all in your head too as I previously explained. So for those of you who advocate adding wax to the back plate, explain to me why it works?

Heck, I could tell you to wrap a post-it around the upper part of the headjoint and half of you would tell me that there was an improvement...

C'mon folks, this is just silly. And if it isn't, explain to me why?

Joe B

I don't know if the wax thing give results as I have not tried it and don't plan too, so I am not going to comment about that.

Just out of curiosity I am gonna have to try that whole Biogio stopper to see what all the fuss is about. I have a friend whom repairs flutes and has a few that she will send out on trial. So far I have tried all the weighted crowns, adding weight to the head between the cork and crown and have found no difference. If anything when I added the weight between the crown and cork it deadends the sound, but it was probably my mind playing tricks. Hey, if it sells, people will contiune to beleive. Now, how many people are going to switch from their Muramatsu flutes to a Naghara because Galway did? Ha! Ha! The gospel according to Galway should be added to the flutists bible.

What is being described in the Galway forum is that they are taking flutes with well fitted corks or bigio stoppers, taking off the crowns, adding beeswax, applying heat to the tube, and allowing the beeswax to seep into the cork (without touching the cork assembly).

I want to use this to address Kara's statement.

First off, How do we know that these corks are well fitted? I don't often find the original ones fitted very well..And Bigio stoppers don't have cork!

Secondly, Robert himself has said that he's not sure why his stopper works. Well I have formulated as good as an explanation and hopefully this will shed some more light on this conundrum.

2 facts:
People have various blowing pressures.
Bigio stopper's work for some and not for others.

Why? A bigio stopper has an O-ring because it is designed to move a little. Benade's research affirms Coltman's research that as little as a tenth of a millimeter can have a great effect on response. IF,and it's a big IF, the player's air pressure is in a range to allow that to happen, response benefits will be realized. If your pressure is too great and overcomes the elasticity, no response change will be noticed. If too little to operate it, you too will notice no difference. Changing the mass off the stopper or elasticity of the seal can optimize this function for any player. (but that is quite a puzzle.)

Sealing a bigio stopper with wax negates any positive effects that it is suppose to accomplish. (That is, unless for really strong player, you've added a little more resistance to the O-ring elasticity. Now it can do what it is supposed to.)

As far a varying crown weight, the effect of adding mass outside of direct influence of the standing wave is already known and in use with other instruments. But the two effects are not related..Which hopefully should be obvious.

Joe B

when you want to know the place to be, contact Joe B

right you are Joe

Ann, look up Katie Lowery and she has some that she will lend out on trial, so you don't have to shell out the $300 just to try it.