London Improved D piccolo.

Here is a quick clip I put up for the buyer of the London Improved.

London Improved D Restoration

I picked up this nice piccolo on eBay. It is marked London Improved D. There is a filled crack in the barrel. Other than that it needed a clean and repad. I removed the keys and cleaned  and oiled the wood. Polished the keys, posts, key cups and pins.

The barrel crack was filled with an unknown brown substance but it did not leak. I decided to color the brown filling with a felt tip pen and then reinforce the repair with ca glue, then refinish a bit. I am very satisfied with the result. My repairs are not 100 percent invisible but  I like to leave a bit of a glue line. I can finish this down further but I think it will hold better..

Early Boxwood C Piccolo (Band Flute)

I bought this lovely boxwood piccolo off eBay with some money I made from selling on my Basel piccolo to a fella who plays Basel Clique music.

It is ivory, brass, and boxwood. The only markings are a C and the roman Numerals IIV on each piece including each key. It seems to want to play just below a440. I reckon it's on the earlier side of the 1800s rather than the latter based on square keys and general appearance. The embouchure hole is  also very small.

It is in excellent condition. I only needed to clean, repad, and make a new headjoint cork.

Here are the photos of getting it playing again:

Rudall Carte Repair

   

       So I paid a rather princely undisclosed sum for  Rudall Carte piccolo no. 7887 . The piccolo was /is in immaculate condition. Unfortunately as can happen it developed a hairline crack either during shipping or immediately upon arriving. I had done rather messy repairs in the past as quick fixes, but I wanted this to look good as well as seal. This repair has held up well through playing in, humid and dry conditions so far. It may well move again but hopefully not as it lives humidified now.

Here are before during and after photos. Black and white seemed to have better detail but really it's hard to see with a phone camera.

Blackman Bb Band Flute Restoration

        Been too busy to update this page for a while. I have started to fix up old piccolos and flutes. I am still a novice but have read on it for years following how Jon C, and Jem Hammond among others have been going about it.

My concert flute is a Blackman so I purchased this  Blackman Bb from eBay (for about 60 quid) to go along side it. Probably a bit of a high price for this type of flute, but it plays in A440. When it arrived I noticed some small hairlines in the unlined head. I filled these rather messily with the wrong type of  CA glue (the pound land type).

 So fast forward a few years and I have another lovely Rudall Carte piccolo arrive with a body crack that happened during shipping or within an hour or two after arriving. I decided on fixing it myself and learning to do it properly. First I wanted some experience so out with the acetone to remove my sloppy repairs on the Blackman and start fresh. I used  super thin CA glue and dust made from the end cap of a junk flute. And finished with steel wool and oil. I cleaned all metal parts with  brasso and cleaned and oiled the wood. I then rep added  with closed cell foam.