A bone flute is a hollow bird or small-animal leg bone, cleaned, cut to 15-25 cm, given a blowing edge and 3-4 finger holes, and its open-tube pitch falls roughly between 686 and 1,143 Hz before end corrections. Take bone only from animals you butchered or know to be healthy, degrease it by boiling, and drill slowly so the wall does not crack. Enlarging a hole raises its note, so drill small first.
Part of Music & Simple Instrument Making
End-blown and fipple flutes made from hollow bones: choosing and preparing bone, cutting the edge and drilling the holes.
Old Instruments, Modern Physics
Bone flutes are among the oldest musical instruments found. Fragments from caves in southwestern Germany, including a griffon-vulture-bone flute from Hohle Fels with five finger holes and a length I recall as just under 22 cm, are dated to roughly 40,000 years ago (Conard and colleagues, 2009, in Nature; recalled, verify). Flutes made from crane bone with seven holes were found at Jiahu in China and dated to about 9,000 years ago (also recalled). The parent article’s statement that bone flutes have been made for at least 40,000 years is consistent with those finds but is at the edge of what I can confirm.
For an open tube f ≈ v ÷ 2L with v about 343 m/s at 20 °C. The parent article’s 15-25 cm range therefore gives:
- L = 0.25 m: f = 343 ÷ (2 × 0.25) = 686 Hz
- L = 0.15 m: f = 343 ÷ (2 × 0.15) = 1,143 Hz
Those are open-tube figures before end corrections, which lower the real note a little.
What You Need
- Hollow bone with thick enough walls — large bird (goose, turkey) or small animal leg bones; the parent article’s list also names deer and sheep, which are thick-walled and heavy but workable
- Water and a pot for degreasing; abrasive for smoothing
- A drill: a heated metal point or a stone point; see Drill and Auger, which covers the bow drill as a light, fast drill
- A small file or sharp stone for the blowing edge
Method: From Bone To Flute
Step 1: Source safely. Use bones from animals you butchered and know to be healthy; see the danger note below.
Step 2: Clean the bone. Remove marrow and tissue, boil to degrease, rinse and dry thoroughly over days.
Step 3: Cut to length with a saw or by scoring and snapping, leaving 20 cm or so to start. Smooth both ends.
Step 4: Make the blowing edge. For an end-blown flute, file a shallow V-notch in the rim and blow across it, the way you blow across a bottle. For a fipple, follow Reed Flutes & Whistles.
Step 5: Drill the finger holes slowly, starting small. Bone splits if drilled hard or hot; stop and cool the point. Holes near the bone’s ends or on thin spots crack first.
Step 6: Tune by enlarging a hole to raise its note and by trimming the foot; see Hole Spacing & Tuning.
Common Mistakes
- Using bone that still holds grease. It turns rancid and smells; degrease fully.
- Thin-walled bone with many holes. Each hole weakens the wall; bird bone with 3-4 holes is plenty.
- Overheating the drill point. Scorches and cracks the bone.
Safety
Bone from unknown animals
Bone and tissue from an animal found dead can carry infection, and anthrax spores persist in remains; do not use bone from a carcass of unknown history, and do not open one that died suddenly with blood from its orifices. See Zoonotic Diseases. Bone dust irritates the lungs, so drill outdoors and avoid breathing it. The flute goes to a mouth, so wash it after each user.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Material Selection — comparing bone with cane and wood
- Combine with: Bone Glue — another use of butchering waste