Category: Fujara care

Please use these instructions to fix some minor problems of your Fujara flute:

My Fujara flute doesn’t play well:

• Check your Fujara flute against air leakage.
• After extensive playing – clean you Fujara flute’s windway.

My Fujara flute’s joint does not fit right:

• Fujara flute’s joint is too tight.
• Fujara fute’s joint became too loose.

In case your Fujara flute needs a more serious treatment we are ready to repair it for you: Find out more on Fujara flute repairs and voice improvement.

Feeling your Fujara flute doesn’t play well ?

Check your Fujara :

In case you feel your fujara flute does not play the same as on the featured recordings, or the flute’s sound is weak, please check the flute agains air leakage :

1. It is essential that the small leather plug is inserted tightly in the small notch at top end of the fujara main pipe. In case the leather plug is lost an adjusted strip of leather would do the work.
2. Check if both ends of smaller air pipe are plugged properly. The only opening through which the air should flow in, is the mouthpiece hole.
3. Still nothing? Contact us: info@fujara.sk

After extensive playing:

If you feel your fujara flute suddenly plays weaker or more noise is present in its voice than usuall you need to clean the fujara fipple’s duct (air channel):

Sometimes it happens that a dirt from your mouth or tiny spinter stucks in the fujara flute’s fipple (sound device) resulting in worser fujara voice.

1. Try to “blow out” the dirt by a very, very strong blow ( or scatter in case you want to practice 🙂
2. If this doesn’t help, pull out the small leather plug out of the small notch at the top end of the fujara main pipe and carefully clean the windway with a thin piece of wood, plastic or stiff paper:
   • Cut a strip of a business card off then fold it over once (to stiffen it up more) or scissor out a suitable piece from yogurt or butter/margarin plastic container
   • Run in and out of the windway to dislodge any foreign matter. Blow sharply through the windway after this to make sure that you get all foreign matter out of the windway (you can place your finger over the windway opening, so that the fujara won’t make any sound .
3. Still nothing? Contact us: info@fujara.sk

Does the joint on your collapsible Fujara flute’s NOT fit right ?

Fujara flute’s joint is too TIGHT

Tight is good ! It means that your Fujara flute joint doesn’t allow any air to pass through which is very desired !

You can help yourself to undone the joint more easily when you will grease it regularly (‘Chapstick’ or ski wax can serve well too).

Due to the Fujara overtone bass flute’s grand dimensions, the properties of its tenon joints can vary greatly according to local weather/humidity. To prevent the tenons becoming too loose later, we have deliberately made the Fujara flute’s joint a bit more tight:

• In the low humidity area, Fujara flute’s joint tend to get looser. Oiling of your Fujara flute is highly reccomended too !
• In high humidity (wet) area Fujara flute’s joint gets even more tight.

In case the joint of your Fujara flute is too tight even after some time and playing, you can brush away a bit of cork by sandpaper. Afterwards, you should grease the cork again with the cork grease or vaseline. Please, just be carefull while tight joint is always better then loose 🙂

Suitable oils:

• any flute oil (ask in music stores)
• non-drying oils:
  • paraffin oil
  • food grade oil of your choice – Olive, Black Walnut, Sesame (to prevent rancidity add little vitamin E – a natural, non-toxic preservative)
• To seal the fujara from the inside you can use the drying oils:
  • tung oil
  • raw linenseed (flaxen) oil
  Every oil has a bit different properties, though, one cannot say which is the best. A few frops of tea tree oil will preserve the oil and also prevent decay or fungus…

• Find out more on oiling technique below:
• How much oil should I use?
• How often should I oil my flute?

Remember, by oiling you are protecting your fujara overtone flute from humidity and you are changing its accoustics as well: Old fujarists used to put a few drops of oil into the sound device (fipple labium) before every performance.

Organic, vegetable-based oils penetrate the wood fibers, displacing moisture that would like to enter the wood.

However we do not recommend oiling your Fujara too often – excessive oiling can easily clog the flute’s sound device, so be carefull !

Fujara flute oiling technique:

Prepare the oil. The aim is to spread the oil evenly all over the inner wals of your fujara flute.
How much oil should be used? 0.5 – 1 dcl should be well enough… at the end you will let out the excessive oil from your fujara anyway:

Advice: put a few drops of tea tree oil into your prepared oil to prevent decay or fungus.

1/ First, take your fujara upside down and pour some oil into the fujara main pipe through the square window of the fujara flute’s sound device in its upper part.

This is the best way how to oil fujara while it is essential to oil the upper part of fujara inner walls, where the sound is created and most moisture is collected.

IMPORTANT: Oil the smaller fujara flute air pipe too.
See more details in step 5.

3/ Turn your fujara toward vertical position and turn it round and round to spread the oil evenly over the inner walls of the fujara main pipe.

…upside-down, left-to-right, right-to-left, round and round… to spread the oil throughout the fujara pipe evenly…

4/ Let out the excessive oil from you flute.
After one or two hours blow very strong into the fujara flute to push the overdue oil from the sound device notch.
Allow some more time (1 hour – 1 day) for the oil to soak into the wood of fujara inner walls. Then put your fujara to rest in vertical position and let out the overdue oil from the main pipe.

5/ Oil the side air pipe of your fujara flute too:

Don’t forget to protect it with oiling as well, as the most moisture from playing is collected in its bottom end -near the mouthpiece and thusly it is most viable to crack if unprotected.

Oil your fujara whenever you start to feel it is too dry inside:

From the beginning you can oil your Fujara more often, lets say once in 3 – 4 months, depending on how much you play and how much oil the wood absorbs. Do it for example 2 times (If the wood can absorb more oil, it should be oiled more…) Then, after some time, as you start to feel your Fujara is oiled enough, oil it regularly but no more than every 8 months and later you can allow even longer and longer pauses…
Please, keep in mind that too much of anything is simply too much!

After some oiling with any other non-drying oil you can use the linenseed oil to actually seal your fujara from the inside for extra protection.

Some notes on flaxen oil:

Flaxen oil is drying oil and it can seal your fujara from the inside. When applied, it would create a thin layer of dried oil what is very desired. Just be carefull with it. Although it is traditional to use some linenseed oil, don’t overuse it, since heavy use of any oil, and especially linenseed oil, can choke up your fujara and actually clog the flute’s sound device.

IMPORTANT >>

Even I didn’t first realize how important this is, but after I cracked in this manner my first Fujara overtone flute, I try never to forget about pulling out the mouthpiece and letting out the condensation after playing.

IMPORTANT >>

After playing ALWAYS pull out the MOUTHPIECE and let out the CONDANSATION! Due to the collected moisture the mouthpiece can swell up and crack the smaller fujara flute’s air pipe.

Never play fujara or any wooden/bamboo flute that hasn’t been oiled or played over years! It is dried out and due to sudden changes of moisture after extensive playing it can crack easily.

The most liable to crack is the smaller fujara air pipe, where the condensation is collected. Thus, protect the small air pipe from condensation by regular oiling as well!