Hi!
I work as a park ranger in Yosemite National Park. I also play shakuhachi,
bamboo flutes from China, and other endblown flutes from South America.
Coincidentally, I play Miwok Indian flutes which are also endblown and made
from elderberry. You have to be very careful with elderberry because of
toxicity issues with the wood. Certain toxins are present in different
parts of the elderberry plant and what seems to work with regard to curing
the wood is allowing sufficient time to pass before you handle the wood.
The flute that I play comes from a branch that sat in my house for about a
year before I began to work the wood using an obsidian knife (I was
creating the flute in the traditional manner....). Once the outer bark was
removed, the inner pith could also be removed using a long, slender, sturdy
stick. The fingerholes were burned in using a nail heated over a fire.
The inside bore was smoothed out using equisetum, a scouring rush which
here in Yosemite Valley picks up silica from the soil. The Ahwahneechees
(Sierra Miwok here in Yosemite Valley) used equisetum as sandpaper at
least in regard to the preparation of flutes. Each end of the flute (which
again was just a branch cut at the nodes) is whittled down using an
obsidian tool.
But none of this is done with freshly cut branches because of this issue of
toxicity. Hope this helps!
Thanks
Shelton Johnson
Park Ranger
Yosemite National Park
P.S. Miwok flutes are very challenging to play as well as other California
Indian flutes. I only know of two other people here in California that
play these flutes. Once you can get a sound out of them, they have, or can
have, a beautiful tone...
sj
JASON CASTNER
<jchanwagenki@yah To: Shakuhachi@communication.ucsd.edu
oo.com> cc: (bcc: Shelton Johnson/YOSE/NPS)
Subject: [Shaku] WOOD FLUTES
03/22/2005 10:43
AM PST
Please respond to
Shakuhachi
Has anyone made a flute out of Elder wood before? In
Europe people have made Elder tree branches into
flutes since a long time ago.... I'm going to make
one this spring. I have to wait for spring to see the
berries and blossoms because thats the only way I can
tell what an Elder tree looks like. The branches have
a very soft pith that can be pushed/burned out to make
a hollow tube. Maybe this is an idea for people that
wanna make their own flutes but bamboo isnt around.
But be careful...read the lore and myth surrounding
elder trees and be respectful when cutting your
branch.
Jason
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