How to Make an Indian Flute Out of Wood
- 1). Plane two sides of the flute to be glued together. Clamp the pieces in a vice and slide a long, sharp hand plane down the length of the grain, removing just a shaving of wood. This will prepare each side for gluing. Make the dimensions of each side the length you want your flute to be and one half the width. Use a softwood, such as cedar. Make sure two sides are planed perfectly. A hand plane with a sharp blade and long deck works great.
- 2). Carve a half-round channel into the two planed faces. Use a spoon-type chisel with approximately the same radius of the air hole. However, leave three areas intact: each end and a dividing wall 2 to 4 inches from the blow hole, creating a long and a short chamber.
- 3). Glue and clamp the two halves of the flute together, measuring exactly how far the wall between the two chambers is located from the blow hole. Allow the glue to dry. You may find it is easier to use a metal scraper to remove excess glue at the outer joint, prior to sanding.
- 4). Drill holes in each end. Drill a hole on the outside of the flute, where the wall is located. Only drill a shallow hole, barely boring past the inside diameter of the carved flute chamber. This hole, when blocked from the outside by a traditional hand-carved wooden totem animal, will direct wind up and over the chamber wall and into the next chamber, shaping the tone of the flute.
- 5). Drill small finger holes. Ideally you will stat with a template that has dimensions. Temporarily block the chamber hole with tape. Using a tuning fork or pitch pipe, widen the hole incrementally, until it is tuned to the proper note. Repeat this step for each finger hole.
- 6). Carve an ornamental totem animal. It can anything from a tortoise to a wolf. Carve the animal so it can sit across the chamber hole and seal it. With a strip of leather, lash the totem animal so it only partially obstructs the chamber hole. This will produce a reed effect and a constant background tone, not unlike an organ. It also softens the difference between notes due to differential in air pressure. The flute can be adorned with any Indian symbols and patterns you like.