Southern Cross Flutes chooses premium timber when selecting woods for flutes. Our wood is chosen for durability, resonance and beauty.
Every wood tells a story; read about some of the more popular woods we handcraft our Native American Style Flutes from.
For more detailed information, check out our Profiling the Woods We Use on our Blog or view our Specialty Woods Portfolio.
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Ancient Kauri
As a flute wood, Ancient Kauri has a voice that is rich and sweet, giving it great acoustical properties for the lower as we ll as the higher pitched notes. It's a fantastic Native American Flute wood, ancient and beautiful. Typically Ancient Kauri is darker brown in colour with a depth of grain that holds shimmering highlights within. This wood has been recovered from swamps in the far north of New Zealand/Aotearoa, where it's been naturally preserved for between 10,000 to 40,000 years!
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Black Walnut
Black Walnut, as a flute-wood, has a voice that is bright, clear, and strong, due to the hardness of the wood. The wood colour is typically a swirling combination of browns and blacks. This is often a highly figured wood, with knot inclusions and other wild grain patterns. Black Walnut is native to America and is grown in New Zealand.
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Heart Rimu
Rimu, as a flute wood, is hard and dense, providing a bright tone and clear sound. It has patterns of yellow, brown and green through it, making it one of the most decorative woods in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Rimu grows throughout the country; the largest concentration of trees is now found on the West Coast of the South Island.
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Maple
Hard maple is strong, heavy, hard, and straight grained with a fine texture. The colour is cream with fine red/brown bands. This fantastic tone wood is more commonly found in violins and guitars, showing its proven track record as an instrument wood.
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Puriri
Puriri (Vitex lucens) is a beautiful spreading tree of New Zealand’s native bush and is found in coastal and lowland forests in the Northern half of the North Island. It’s a member of the Verbenaceae family so is related to teak. It can grow up to 20m high with a trunk of 1.5m encased in thick bark. As a flute wood, Puriri creates a very bright and clear tone, it’s vibrant and resonant and firm in the hand.
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Red Beech
Southern beech is a highly decorative hardwood with a natural sheen and lustre. This Southern Beech has a very resonance voice and a lovely medium weight.
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Rewarewa
Rewarewa, not only the name for a delectable N.Z honey, but also a lowland flute wood with the look of a savannah wild cat. As a flute wood, it is hard and smooth, providing a bright and full sound.
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Rosewood
Australian Rosewood is a richly hued timber, dense and strong, this wood is world renown as a quality instrument timber. It has an even woven like grain, is medium density timber which provides the player with a good 'feel' for the flute being in the hands. The sound is clear, bright, and resonant, yet soft and full.
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Western Red Cedar
Western Red Cedar is the quintessential Native American love flute wood. Very light to hold, this flute-wood produces a classic warm, rich and resonant tone. Being a softwood, it is very absorbent which helps in reducing moisture buildup within the flute while playing. It is typically a light brown colour with a sweet woody aroma under the nose. Traditionally known as the “long life maker” or “tree of life”, Western Red Cedar is native to the American Pacific North West, and to this day has extensive applications among First Nation peoples.
FROM A CUSTOMER
"Hey Todd,
My flute arrived today! It is really beautiful – and once I adjusted the totem I was able to get some beautiful sounds out of it.
Many thanks.