Popular Woodworking 2005-10 № 150, страница 106

Great Woodshops

The Art of Engineering Flutes

Dave Copley, an ex-aircraft engineer, makes world-class wooden flutes in a small garage workshop.

Dave Copley tenderly lifts an African blackwood flute with sterling silver keys and rests it against his lips. A complex, hard-edged sound emerges from the handcrafted instrument as he plays a traditional Irish slip jig called "The Snowy Path" (written by Mark Kelly of the band Altan).

Copley says a wooden flute sounds different - darker - than the sound from the more ubiquitous metal flutes.

The sound made by wooden flutes was standard fare in orchestras until the late 1800s. Metal flutes, which produce a much brighter sound, are far more common today. However, wooden flute makers still exist and we found two - Copley (a 52-year-old ex-aircraft engineer) and his wife, Marlene Boegli (a 44-year-old silversmith) - in a small garage workshop in southwest Ohio.

Copley and Boegli's workshop is broken up into specific workstations. Each station has

Dave Copley (left) and Marlene Boegli handcraft wooden Irish Session flutes in a small garage workshop in southwest Ohio. Copley has been playing the wooden flute for 10 years.

Each flute is made from five short sections of wood such as African blackwood (plus an end cap), sterling silver and cork.

a woodworking or metalworking machine or tool that has been specifically designed to turn several small pieces of African blackwood, and several bits of silver, into a beautiful instrument where precision is paramount. Copley and Boegli's life experiences, as well as their carefully planned workshop, make them well-equipped for the task.

Engineering, Woodworking and Music

Copley was born and raised in Derby, England. He attended college in Cambridge where he studied materials science for three years. His first job was improving the reliability of aircraft engines for Rolls-Royce. In 1979 he accepted a job with General Electric Co. (G.E.) doing the same thing, and moved to Cin-

by Kara Gebhart Uhl

Comments or questions? Contact Kara at kara.uhl@fwpubs .com.

cinnati. In 1986 he and Boegli married and bought the house they live in today.

After Copley moved to the United States, he became interested in woodworking. He built several pieces of furniture and a loom for his wife. Copley also became interested in Irish music, which he later learned to play. His first instrument of choice was the tin whistle (a small flute that's played by blowing into its end, similar to a recorder). Ten years ago he began to play the wooden flute, which he now plays as a member of an Irish band called Ceol Mhor, which is Gaelic for "Great Music" or "Loud Noise."

The moment Copley picked up a wooden flute, he knew he wanted to make one. One of his co-workers at G.E., an amateur bagpipe player, made Irish bagpipes. During lunch, Copley would talk with him about the building process. One evening, his co-worker drove to Copley's house with a lathe, some wood, some turning tools and some basic lessons. Copley fell in love with the process, which requires

102 Popular Woodworking October 2005