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mopane

Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2005-04-25 18:29

Hi all -- My husband is looking at a folk flute made of mopane. When I looked on this board about that wood I came up with an old thread about a mopane clarinet by Amati, but I couldn't find anywhere where anyone has seen one or played one. They show it as the 500 series on Amati's website, but I don't see much else about it. Anyone know more about how this wood works out?

Also, the description of one model of folk flutes refers to the possibility that there might be infusions of sapwood in the wood. Besides changing the look of the wood, is this a concern in terms of the density, tensile strength, etc of these infusions compared to the heartwood?

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Re: mopane

Author: ron b
Date: 2005-04-26 00:43

You'll have to scroll down quite a bit to find the Mopane, Clarinetwife... interesting stuff though

http://www.gilmerwood.com/unique24.htm

- r [cool]

n b -

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Re: mopane

Author: msloss
Date: 2005-04-26 02:27

Mopane -- is that mo' combustible than propane, methane, butane, ethane, and octane?

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Re: mopane

Author: clarinetwife
Date: 2005-04-26 04:58

Actually, msloss, the link ron posted does say that mopane gets hit by lightning mo' than other trees, which could indeed lead to an explosive situation. Maybe we'd better take out some extra life insurance before we let him play the mopane flute.

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Re: mopane

Author: ron b
Date: 2005-04-26 06:31

( hmmm... might wanna think twice about amplifying our mopane clarinets)

[whoa]

)

- ron b -

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Re: mopane

Author: L. Omar Henderson
Date: 2005-04-26 22:03

I have done a Google search for Mopane used in instruments and actually it is quite widespread and proposed as a viable alternative to Grenadilla. Several flute, lute, and even bag pipers are making instruments currently out of Mopane. On the world lumber market it is expensive but not as expensive as Grenadilla. The current quantities seem to be abundant in Africa. At ClarinetFest 2003 in Salt Lake I tried out a Mopane Amati clarinet that Graham Golden brought to the show. The wood has a more brown-orange color than unstained Grenadilla but may darken with age? The instrument that I played - an intermediate Bb clarinet - had a similar tone and timbre as a comparable Bb instrument in Grenadilla. This of course is not a scientific sampling (N=1).
L. Omar Henderson

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