Wim Walkot

The Sunflower whistles

I've always been curious how this flute would sound.

Have shown and heard many different flutes on this site, but here it is! Last but not least the Sunflower Flute.

The beauty of this story is that the flute maker lives in the Netherlands. I have the idea that our country is not littered with flute makers. Wim Walkot has been a flute maker for the NAF for about 7 years now, flutes ranging from high tones to very heavy bass flutes. He was willing to write a piece for this site about how he makes his flutes.

Making the sunflower flute

Below is the story of a  flute maker that lives in the Netherlands to with material that grows in the garden of many of us.

Here is his story how he makes his flutes.

I am Wim Walkot and my hobby is making Native  American style flutes and in particular the "Sunflower Flute"

It all starts with drying the stems that I harvest at a sunflower grower.

After she has harvested the flowers I can come and get the stems I want.

Once the stems have dried and drilled out, I cut a round piece of wood or cork to fit the flute's bore and slide it in into the correct position to create a short section and a long section of air chamber and glue them with wood glue.

Then I first make a piece flat and as deep as the thickness of the handle allows above the place where the round piece of cork or wood is located and make a block of beautiful wood which is glued on with wood glue.

Once it's cured I can start forming the flute's nest which is really just 2 holes from the air chamber to the flute bore.

Through the nest, air is directed from the slow air chamber to the flute's sound chamber.

On top of the nest there is another Block that ensures that no air escapes and that it passes neatly through the nest.

2020 No. 046 Am

My flute

Since 2020 I can call myself the happy owner of a Zonnebloem flute from Wim. The flute plays very nicely and is very light, in short a nice addition to my collection.

It is an A minor flute and has 5 holes to show you how it sounds here a video with playing guitar and flute. So listen up. If you want to listen to more of Wim's flutes, click on the Soundcloud button at the top of this page.