World Shakuhachi Discussion / Go to Live Shakuhachi Chat
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Hello, my name is David Donaldson, and I am new to the world of the shakuhachi; as far as learning to make and play it.
I am 63 years old, and have become fascinated with bamboo flutes in general, but have only played the Romanian style pan flute.
I have a source of green bamboo; it appears to be the type known as "multiplex", with joints nearly 24" long, and up to an inch and a half inside diameter.
I want to build a successful shakuhachi. I tried building one, and was reasonably successful in obtaining and sustaining a nice long single tone. As the bamboo was yet too fresh, I attempted to hasten the cure by flaming it with a torch. After heating it for a while to drive out moisture, I retuned the mouthpiece and still had a pretty good tone. But alas! As I drilled the finger holes the flute split. I believe that I got it too dried out and it became brittle. I bound it with dacron strands used in building bow strings, but the resonance is now lost. Can someone point me in the right direction where can I obtain some pieces of cured bamboo that is suitable for flute building?
Thank you so much for allowing me to come aboard with the much more learned than I.
David Donaldson
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Welcome to the Forum!
Where do you hail from?
-Eddie
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Pensacola not always sunny Florida...
David
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Do you have any bamboo places down there, like a "bamboo specialty" kind of place? That's how I got my start, just found some good Tonkin bamboo and got to work. Much cheaper than ruining good pieces when you're just getting started.
-E
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Now you are saying Tonkin....the tonkin that we have here is extremely thick walled, and would have to be drilled quite a bit. This is the stuff that split bamboo fly rods are being made from...are we talking about the same tonkin?
David
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No, that's more likely to be a variety of Tam Vong or Tre Gai, but I can't be sure. You want Tonkin, which is excellent for making Hocchiku.
Look at "poles" on this site:
http://bamboohardwoods.com/
They show little pics of the various poles they have in stock. When they re-vitalize thier stock this summer, I'll be getting a lot of good poles from them, since they're local. Right now over 80% of thier stock is split.
I've gotten some good, heavy pieces from them in the past. Moso can also be good, but you have to find just the right piece. I'm going to make a few Watazumido-style hocchiku this summer using Moso. They tend to have near-root stock during the summer in all the different bamboos.
If thier stock increases as I'm expecting it to, I'd be into buying cut poles for people that needed it. I'll keep you all informed.
-E
Last edited by kyoreiflutes (2007-02-12 21:33:55)
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Hey, thanks a lot!! I will check out this site in depth tonite when I get home........gotta go now as I am at work, but again thank you.
David
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Hey....just got home and checked out the site, and it seems promising. What size poles do you buy for building your flutes?
David
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I tend to favor sizes in the 2.3 - 3.0 variety, using them for good hochikku, but they definately have good stock for smaller. I just tend to skip over them. They also have a decent selection during the summer of black bamboo, but it's a little thin-walled. What else is new. Why doesn't black bamboo ever seem to get as thick as other bamboos? Maybe if you grew it for a long time under the same conditions as good madake...
Anyway, I can look for pieces for any size you want. I have a pretty good eye for what will make a good flute, and if you don't want it, I'll use it. I made a 1.8 out of near-root I got from there, and it worked really well.
I'll make sure to get this project going this summer, depending on what they'll have at this place. like I said, they moved locations, and their stock area is much smaller than at their last shop. But we'll see what happens... at the very least, the stock won't be split, which makes it much easier to find good pieces.
-E
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