I attended John Landell’s Vermont Flute Workshop in 2009. This was an amazing experience to work alongside and learn from a true master craftsman.
Here is my photo journal of the adventure.
We began with tool making. The first project is to make a burnisher out of a file blank. The shape is sketched out.
First the shape is created on a grinding wheel and here I'm finishing the surface using a sanding wheel. The surface of a burnisher needs to be mirror smooth and to accomplish this finer and finer sanding strips are used going from 80 up to 1500 grit.
It is important to use the finished burnisher at the angle shown. Used carefully (everything with flutes is done carefully) dents and scratches are removed.
The next project is a making swedging pliers. This tool is indispensable to fine flute repair. Key tubing is squeezed and stretched to eliminate lost key motion. A flute pad should land in only one place on the tone hole.
With a thin spacer holding the plier jaws open, it is mounted in a vise and then a drill mounted in the milling machine is used to drill a hole in the pliers.