January 25, 2009

Today I went to Paul’s own workshop in the Hague, where after tea he showed me the instruments he makes, and even gave me a little demonstration of these beautiful musettes.

Paul Beekhuizen

Beekhuizen musettes

Afterwards we took my maple cylinder into the shop, attached it to the lathe, and used a long, very thin, gouge-like tool to bore length-wise right through the middle.  This gouging tool was hooked up to an electrical blower, which I correctly guessed sent air through this tiny gouge as it bored through the wood, sending sawdust out (I suppose the alternative is for the hole being bored to get clogged, or perhaps ruining your tool).  To be honest, the whole thing sounded and looked like strangely enlarged versions of instruments you might find at a dentist’s office….

cylinder on lathe

making the first bore with the tiny gouge

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And that was it.  Now my flute is a cylinder with a bore inside that is no bigger than 4 mm.