Art of Native American Flute Making
John Stillwell Fashions Indian Flutes for Musicians around the World
Oct 26, 2008
John Stillwell's Native American flutes aren’t only captivating to the ear; the instruments are crafted with colors, patterns, and shapes stimulating to the eye as well.
For ten years, John has fine-tuned his art. “For me,” he writes, “craftsmanship involves the constant seeking after perfection. There is an ideal sound calling from just over the horizon. It calls from a place just beyond the best flute I have ever made. Striving for this ideal makes me focus on even the most minute detail that affects the flute’s sound. I have an obligation to bring that Spirit to every flute I make, because the flute player deserves no less.”
Beginnings of a Flute Maker
John Stillwell first picked up a river cane flute at a swap meet. “I didn’t even know the instrument was called a Native American flute,” he reminisces. “A vender was asking $15 for his flutes, but he had this flimsy, crooked flute for $7. I wasn't sure whether I’d be able to play it or not, so I took the crooked one. Lo and behold, I started to make interesting, satisfying music without a great deal of effort.”
With 25 years of woodworking experience, John quickly progressed from a player to a maker of the Native American flute. “I gravitated toward better and better instruments,” he remembers, “Finally, I realized the instruments I wanted were $300, so I thought I ought to be able to make them for myself.”
At first, John found flute making far more complicated than he’d anticipated. He admits his first flutes were humble instruments, but with each attempt, his understanding of flute dynamics improved. He received help and encouragement from other flute makers, and in time the sound and appearance of his instruments grew stunningly superb.
Cutting and Routing
John begins the painstaking process of roughing out a flute by selecting his wood, discarding any with knots or cracks, and cross cuting boards to the approximate length of a finished flute. He checks for exact thickness then rip cuts each flute-shaped block with the table saw to divide it longways . When he rejoins the two halves , the grain will match perfectly down the flute’s center.
Crafting the Mouth Piece, Plug, and Sound Hole
John fashions a long semi-circle groove down each half of the flute with a cove bit. When the flute's halves are rejoined, these grooves will create the hollow inner parts of the instrument: the bore and slow air chamber. Routing the groove requires at least three passes. He flattens any warping and sands the edges. This removes a fraction of wood, so John must return to the router to regain the precise depth. At this point, John tapers the mouth end of the inner cavity to fashion the mouth hole.
The next step is making a plug to separate the bore from the slow air chamber. John cross cuts a birch dowel to craft a piece with one end slanted at ninety degrees and the other at 52-degrees. After the plug is cut, he sands and soaks it in polyurethane.
Next, John deftly cuts the true sound hole and exit of the slow air chamber. He sands the inside of the flute and brushes it with sealant.
John spreads glue along the edges into an even film with his finger. Finally, he positions the plug and joins the halves together. He swabs excess glue with a damp cloth while the instrument dries in a press.
When the instrument is dry, John removes it from the press and scrapes away excess glue. Next, he flattens the bottom side of the flute on the belt sander and runs it through the thickness planer to square its topside.
Tuning
John carefully cuts a shallow groove into the flute between the slow air chamber and the bore with a hand held router. This flue will carry air from the slow air chamber to the splitting edge, where the sound vibrations are produced. With hand files and chisels, he perfects the surfaces of the true sound hole and the exit of the slow air chamber. Even the tiniest mistakes here will affect the flute’s sound. When finished, he can hear the flute’s voice for the very first time.
At this point, most flute makers turn the instrument on a lathe to round its outside. John’s flutes though, have a distinctive shape involving many added steps of woodwork.
After laboriously shaping each unique flute, John must tune them. He trims the barrel then tests the flute’s tone with an electronic tuner. If the note is flat, the barrel must be trimmed further. He trims and tests until the fundamental note is clear and in tune. At last, he uses a drill press and machinist’s vice to make six tone holes, then tunes each note by shaving wood from the hole and testing with an electronic tuning device.
Sealing and Finishing
Finally, the body is complete, but it takes sixteen, painstaking steps for John to craft this flute’s bird. The “bird” is the wooden device secured to the flute’s top which directs air towards the splitting edge.
After this, he applies a heavy coat of polyurethane. When the coat dries, John sands the flute and sprays a second coat.
Applying polyurethane has incrementally changed the splitting edge and tone holes. So, John tunes the flute once again. He cuts a leather thong to secure the bird to the flute and puts the instrument together.
John Stillwell keeps his love of flute-making fresh by “pushing the envelope of knowledge and skill a little farther” with each new batch of flutes. For him, the work is about bringing the best in himself “to a focal point of concentration and maintaining that level of attention in each detail of the work.” He remarks, “I know that I'm not at the end of this flute-making road and probably never will be. I'm glad of that, because part of my joy comes from listening for the lessons that each flute has to teach.”
Quotes taken in conversation between Suite101.com and John Stillwell, and his blog.
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