Brass has a wonderful, bright, gold-like appearance. It is malleable [workable], low friction and has a golden glow. Even when dirty and tarnished, it can be brought back to its former glory with a bit of cleaning. But what is brass and why use it to make musical instruments? Brass is...
Does nickel silver really contain silver? The simple answer is ‘No’. It’s a copper alloy that normally contains about 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc. It is called nickel silver because it does really look like silver in terms of colour and shininess. Sterling silver, in contrast, is an...
Ebony, Diospyros ebenum or Ceylon ebony is a hard, dry, brittle wood with a very low oil and resin content. The wood is so dense it can even sink in water. Many (even the occasional flute-maker!) find it quite difficult to distinguish ebony from grenadilla (African blackwood). However, ebony is,...
Ebonite was invented in 1839 by Charles Goodyear. He found that he could obtain a black material, which was rigid rather than elastic, by mixing together and heating latex and sulphur. The result was a hard rubber and it was given the name ebonite because both the colour and consistency...
Boxwood is a lovely wood and it’s hardly surprising that it remains quite a favourite among today’s woodwind instrument makers. Buxus sempervirens, known as European boxwood, or common boxwood, is a species of flowering plant. It is an evergreen bush really, rather than a tree. It takes a long time...
Cocuswood is the very dense hardwood of a Caribbean flowering tree called the ‘Brya ebenus’. ‘Brya ebenus’ belongs to the pea family ‘Fabaceae’ and is native to the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Cuba. It also goes by the quite romantic name of Jamaica Rain Tree because it blossoms bright yellow-orange...
