Add to Cart
The Backpacker Flute
The Backpacker flute is made of a single wood species rather than
multiple kinds of wood. This Love flute has a simple, low profile, contrasting wood bird on top of the flute. As with the other types of Native American style flutes that I make the bird is secured with a select quality buckskin thong and a turquoise colored bead. The Backpacker flute has a coat of polyurethane varnish on all the interior surfaces.  The critical slow air chamber is also sealed with epoxy resin. The exterior has two coats of polyurethane varnish. The flute is sanded between coats to produce a smooth, durable semi-gloss finish. Good for a rafting trip down the river or packing into the woods.
Making an Ancient Territories Native American Style Flute:
A Step-By-Step Description
  1. My Shop
    After I have carefully selected my flute wood at a lumber dealer and trucked it back to the shop the first thing I do is cross cut the boards with a chop saw into various flute lengths – 21”, 22”, 23” etc. to make the different key Love flutes . I cut out any of the wood that has flaws like knots, cracks or unsightly blemishes. The length of the pieces varies depending on the key of the flute I am making. The lower the key the longer the Native American style flute and the longer the pieces of wood.
  2. Shaping the wood
    I take these pieces and rip cut them on the table saw to the rough width – 1 5/8”, 1 1/2” etc. depending on the bore diameter of the Love flutes I will be making. Cutting two adjacent slices out of a board makes the right and left sides of the flute. When you do this the resulting two pieces can be 'book matched' so that when the two halves are glued back together the grain patterns of the wood form a near mirror image down the center of the top of the Native American flute.
  3. The tools that craft
    Next, the bore and slow air chamber of the Love flute are hollowed out on a router table. To do this I use a half round bit. This type of router bit is also called a cove bit. Routing out the semi circle groove requires three passes over the router. You take off a small portion of wood with one pass then raise the bit a little and take off more wood with the second pass. For very hard wood I may have to make more passes over the bit to progressively deepen the half round cut. Remember that the Ancient Territories Love flute is made in two halves. These two halves are glued together to make the single hollow tube that will become the flute. The large routed groove does not go entirely through to the mouth end of the flute.
  4. The heart of the wood
    If shape, color and fine craftsmanship were all there was to an Ancient Territories Native American style flute then they would be simply 'eye candy' or 'wall hangers'. But, the most important thing about a flute is sound quality. Just as the shape of my flutes has evolved over time and with experience so has the configuration of the sound generating.
  5. Gluing 2 halves together
    The two halves of the Native American style flute are now ready to be glued together. To glue a flute together I put glue on the edges of both halves of the flute and on the area where the plug will fit. I must spread the glue into an even film with my finger. I wipe off my finger, position the plug inside the Love flute and put the two halves together.
  6. Finishing
    I finished inside and out with polyurethane varnish. Polyurethane -when dry- is a non-toxic substance. After much experimentation, I have settled on polyurethane as a protective surface because it has excellent durability and flexibility. Unlike harder epoxy and lacquer finishes it resists chipping and cracking.