Design and Intro
A bird could be really simple regarding design. Just choose a simple “block” with a flu if you like. I personally liked to design a bird that I find visually pleasing and that also allows me to put a gem stone on it if I like to. You should design your own but feel free to use mine for any purpose you want.
The only important thing is its bottom where the flu located. The flu is kind of a square tunnel that directs the air from the compressin chamber (SAC) towards the cutting edge (TSH). You want the air to hit as little resistance as possible to avoid disturbance, so I make shure the flu top/sides are very smooth. It also has to be very air-tight when it sits on the flute or you will loose tone quality..
Specification:
Bird height: 50mm
Bird: length: 120mm
Bird depth: 20mm
Flu length: 55mm
Flu width: 12mm
Flu depth: 0.8mm – 1mm
Template file: Download
Creating and Marking the Bird-Blank
I usually make more than one bird in one run. That’s why I choose a nice wood blank that is at least > 50mm high, > 20mm thick and as wide as you like if you want to make several birds (each is 120mm in width + add some margin).
The first step is to plan the blank on my thinknesser to make if exactly 20mm thick and smooth with parallel sides.
Normally I print as many birds as I want to make and that fit on my blank using the above pdf and use double sided tape to tape them to the blank. I make sure that the bottom of the bird is flush with the blanks bottom so I don’t have to care about straightness later. The black line on the bottom of the flue in the PDF marks where to start and end to route assuming a flat 12mm router bit.
Most of my birds have a flu depth of 1mm and I potentially sand it down slightly if it is too deep for the flute. So all I need to do is to center the router bit to 10mm, set the depth to 1mm and route the bottom of each bird using the mentioned black line in the pdf as guidance.
Sawing, Drilling and Sanding the Bird
A scroll saw is used for convenience to cut out my birds very precisely but you can use any hand saw.
The next step is sanding it starting from 80 grid to 400 grit but try to avoid the bottom. It needs to be 100% flat and I don’t want to risk “free hand” sanding ont the bottom to potentially round it somehow. What you SHOULD do is to smooth the “top” part of the flu (not the sides) from underneath. You can do this by wrapping fine grit sand paper around a file that has a fitting size (smaller width than 12mm).
After everything else beside the bottom walls is nice and smooth, I put some 400 grid sand paper on a flat surface and gently move the bottom of the bird – as straight as possible – a few strokes on it to make sure it is smooth and perfectly leveled.
The two holes are 5mm each and are supposed to help in tying the bird to your flute later on. I use my drill press to drill the holes. Starting from one side I drill “99%” down until the wood-bits centering point shows up and then the rest from the other side to avoid any breakouts.
Bird Finish
In a first step I want to seal the flu and make it as water resistant as possible. I use two thin layers of “Wipe on Poly” (letting it dry 1 hour in between) for the bottom and inner sides of the flu.
Another good option might be thin CA-glue with activator. That would be much faster and probably end up as good.
For the rest of the bird I use a nice oil like Danish Oil to make the surface look pleasing and protect it.
If you like gem stones, you can put a nice stone on the plateau. I usually use the birth stone of the person I intend to give the flute to.
To fix the stone either create a nice “bezel” with a dremel bit or by hand and glue the stone in it or just glue the stone on top of the wood if the stone has the right straight shape on the bottom.
Bird Decoration
I like to add things on top of my bird design. Lately I started to mill figures with my desktop CNC machine. My favorites so far are a butterfly in which I also inlay a stone or a feather. Also see the pictures on the right.
Attaching the Bird
The usual way to attach the bird to the flute is to use leather stripes. The type of leather is important because it should be soft enough that one simple “knot” is enough to hold the bird very tight to your flute.
I have made the best experience so far with Elk and Kodiak leather stripes. I chose a width of about 5mm so the stripes fit nicely into the holes in the bird. If you are making a different bird with other ways of guiding the leather stripes you should use event wider stripes to create more area to hold them tight to the flute/bird.
If you wonder why we are not simply gluing the bird to the flute. The reason in my opinion is that we can remove the bird if the wind tunnel is wet from playing to let it dry but also to slightly adjust the tone over time by moving the bird.
