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| Materials Used to Make Recorders
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Recorders may be made out of a wide variety of woods and other materials, which vary greatly in appearance and hardness. While a recorder's design, style, voicing, and individual characteristics are the most important factors in determining its sound, the type of wood has an effect as well. Relatively soft woods, such as maple, pear, or other fruit woods, tend to have a very warm tone but less volume than denser materials. Very hard woods such as ebony or grenadilla tend to give an instrument more volume and brilliance.
European Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens; specific gravity .91) was the favored wood for the best early woodwind makers. Genuine boxwood of this type is extremely fine grained, and carves beautifully. Unfortunately, it is also a very slow-growing shrub which tends to be very knotty and frequently has many flaws. For this reason it is very labor-intensive, as a large percentage of it has hidden knots or holes and must be discarded after hours of labor have gone into it. The natural color of boxwood is a light yellowish tone, but it is frequently stained darker colors. Early makers stained boxwood instruments to make them look more exotic and elegant, to help the different pieces of an instrument match better, or to disguise discoloration in the wood. We stain ours as well, in a variety of rich shades. The image above shows the wide range of shades we can achieve. Although they appear very shiny, our instruments are never varnished. They are sanded with very fine sandpaper, oiled, and finally buffed. The wood is so fine that it can achieve such a fine finish without varnish, shellac, or lacquer.
Many mass-produced mid-range instruments, such as Moeck Rottenburgh or Mollenhauer Denner are also made of "boxwood," but this "Castello" or "Zapatero" boxwood is of Asian or South American origin, and is not the same as European boxwood. It is not quite as dense and not as fine-grained, but it grows faster and straighter, making it far more economical to use for large-scale mass production.
  | Maple is favored for many Renaissance recorders because surviving
original instruments were made of maple or similar materials. It is
available in very large, consistent pieces, which is particularly
important for Renaissance instruments which frequently require very
large recorders to be made in only one or two pieces. For this reason,
it is also very common for Baroque and modern bass recorders. Maple
can also be very decorative when a piece has curly or figured grain.
In addition, it is used in many inexpensive recorders, and is porous
enough that it is sometimes impregnated with wax under pressure to help
protect the wood from moisture. Its natural color is very light, but it is often stained to help bring out the beauty of the grain. We use American Hard Maple (Acer saccharum; specific gravity .72) which has a sweet, warm tone and blends well with other instruments.
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African Ebony (Diospyrus crassiflora; specific gravity 1.03) is a very hard, dense wood which is naturally very dark brown or black in color. Its beauty makes it a favorite of makers looking to produce outstanding visual pieces. Its density gives it a bright, bold, and powerful tone, which many players favor for concerto instruments where volume is a concern. The Bressan flute pictured below is made of ebony.
Kingwood, Tulipwood, Kingwood, and other types of rosewood (Dalbergia of various kinds) can vary greatly in color and grain, ranging from very light to very dark and from reddish shades to brown. Rosewood has very colorful, high-contrast grain and is very striking in apperance. We select only the finest rosewoods, with exceptional grain and beauty. The tone of rosewood recorders is typically reedy and rich in overtones. The Rippert soprano and alto shown below demonstrate just two of the possible colors. All of our rosewood instruments have all parts made from the same piece, and we take great care to match the grain along the length of the instrument. Because there are so many varieties of rosewood, terminology can sometimes vary. Moeck and Mollenhauer both produce instruments in Palisander and in Tulipwood, but designate the latter simply as "Rosewood", and the former as "Palisander", which can sometimes cause confusion.
Grenadilla (Dalbergia melanoxylon; specific gravity 1.1) is a beautiful dark wood that resembles ebony but has a little more brown in the grain. Extremely tough and durable, grenadilla produces a tone that is bright, clear, and penetrating. Many of our customers favor grenadilla for concerto instruments.
If you have any questions about the materials we use or which wood is right for you, please do not hesitate to ask!
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