This New Zealand Kauri is bogwood. The variety is indigenous to New Zealand, and is approximately 50,000 years old. It may be older, but the accuracy of Carbon-14 dating falls off dramatically beyond 40,000 years. The wood was totally preserved as a result of the acids in the peat bog water at the time it fell over. When this tree fell, mankind had yet to venture out of Africa. Kauri still grows in New Zealand today, with a diameter about the size of a house.

AMMONITE, was a sea creature or Cephalopod, not unlike the Nautilus, that thrived in the shallows of various bodies of water worldwide, between 70 and 100 million years ago. Over 50,000 species suffered and recovered from various extinctions, and they ranged from passive plankton feeders, to aggressive predators with razor sharp beaks. Their mass extinction began 70 million years ago, when volcanic activity in the Rockies, covered large areas in meters thick ash, capping life below in iron rich bentonitic clay. The highly iron ion charged sediments then became the catalyst necessary to transform the inner shell of this creature into earth’s oldest and rarest gemstone.

AMMOLITE is the inner lining of the shell of the Ammonite, which when fossilized will occasionally take on an opalescence and coloration of red, green, yellow, and rarely, blue and purple. I use Bear Paw ammolite. This material is harvested from Alberta Canada, and is approximately 70 million years old. Specifically, prior to the breakup of the super continent Pangaea into the various land masses, the Bear Paw Sea extended from the Arctic Circle, to present day New Mexico. This creature thrived in the shallows of that sea, along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains.

THE GIBEON METEORITE was stumbled upon by British explorers in Namaqualand Namibia, in 1836, as local tribesmen were using the material for spear points. It is in a class of fine Octahedrites, consisting of iron, nickel, and cobalt. The fall date was approximately 30,000 years ago, at a speed of 17 miles per second. Exploding overhead, the trajectory caused this material to be spread over 220 linear miles. The Gibeon is a fragment of an exploded star, and additional minerals consist of chromite, deabreelite, enstatite, kamacite, taenite, and tridymite. Subjected to radiometric dating, this fragment is 4 billion years old. I had this material milled and acid etched. The nitric acid etching makes visible the “Widmanstatten lines” wherein the elements of kamacite and taenite, re-align themselves as a result of cooling during the 4 billion year trip through space. From its original state as molten iron, at the time of the star’s explosion, the material cooled at the rate of ONE DEGREE Celsius for every thousand years of travel through space.

SYSTEMICALLY DYED MAPLE. Although barely visible on edge, I used this material as fetish block overlay, and thought it kind of interesting. Specifically, a grower used harmless colored water when watering the tree over its lifetime during specific growth cycles, providing accelerated uptake. When the tree was later harvested and veneered, it possessed all the colors of the rainbow.

DIAMOND, is very popular in the US. We are the world’s largest consumers of this carbon based mineral. The pressure levels necessary to create a diamond occur between 87 and 120 miles below the earth’s surface. Interestingly, no carbon on earth is native to this planet. It all came from other stars. Once the compaction process begins, it takes from one, to 3.3 BILLION years to create a diamond from this carbon. Diamonds are really old. However, based on material harvested per cubic ton, diamonds are not as rare as ammolite.

NEOLITHIC PROJECTILE POINT From the North African Sahara , this point is 6-8,000 years old. The Sahara is the largest desert in the world, larger than the United States. Eight thousand years ago it was green, lush, and supporting farming communities. A wobble in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, causes the Sahara to completely green up every 20,000 years, scheduled to occur again in 15,000 years. The transition from green to barren desert however, is generational, taking only one to two hundred years. This last transition, forced the owner of this projectile point, as well as the remaining Saharan hunters and farmers eastward, toward the Nile, and present day Egypt, where they set about creating the most sophisticated society in the history of mankind.

The specifics of this build are as follows. …As to woods, ten different varieties were used, as well as natural paua abalone The mouthpiece is formed from California Buckeye Burl, between layers of S.E. Asian Amboyna burl, capped with the kauri. Fetish block #1 is a compression fit stylized water bird..with a raptor head, because a long thin beak would eventually break off. This block is NOT a turtle, although if you love turtles, it is a turtle. The block requires no ties. The underbelly is Oklahoma red cedar while the body is shaped from kauri. Overlays to the body include Virginia walnut burl, white ash, paua abalone, systemically dyed maple, buckeye burl, addl. Abalone, yew, more dyed maple, kauri, and amboyna burl. …. Block #2 is another bird, requiring deerskin ties. It again, is shaped from kauri, bonded to an Oklahoma cedar base. Wing overlays include mappa burl, madrona burl, paua abalone, buckeye burl, additional abalone, systemically dyed maple, and another layer of buckeye burl.

Inlay to this flute is extensive. Beginning at the mouthpiece, the flute is set with a 12x19mm Neolithic North African projectile point, purchased from Paleo Enterprises in Billings Montana, this point is accented with a faceted 6mm, 1.25 ct. African black diamond. Moving forward, the sides of the compression chamber include 22mm disks of amboyna burl. The area directly in front of the fetish is the 15mm etched disk of the four billion year old Gibeon meteorite, while forward from that, is a beautiful, unique mosaic stone consisting of Australian black opal, and seventy million year old ammolite, measuring 12x22mm. Moving south from this stone, the finger holes are accented with four 4mm dome cut solid Australian fire opals, as well as an 8x10mm quartz capped ammolite oval.

Lastly, the fetish blocks. The compression fit bird has a stunning 8x10mm boulder opal set to its back, and 6mm disks of Alaskan woolly mammoth tusk ivory @ between 14 and 40,000 years old, inlaid to the wing tips. The bird’s eyes are set with 2.2mm natural faceted African cognac diamonds. Bird #2 has a gorgeous 7.1mm ammolite cab with lightning red fire, that I’ve been hoarding for years, set to the crown, and 2.3mm faceted African black diamonds, set as eyes.

The flute was tuned at 71.8 degrees Fahrenheit, at 49% humidity.

Purchase includes a small two piece manzanita burl display stand, a beautiful hand tooled waterfall fringe deerskin bag from Ann Charles of Kanza Bags, a protective fleece bag and a cordura hardshell case from The Flutecase Store.

This instrument represents the best of my ability to craft a hand built flute, from materials gathered over years from all over the world. There is not another flute like it on earth. Overall, this fifth build, in five years, left me with the same awe of Mother Nature’s mystery and complexity as did the very first. Building, holding, tuning and testing this flute gave me a sense that there is an unseen, unknown, grand scheme, and we all unknowingly share in it, even if it is for just a fraction of a cosmic second. This flute however, brings me closer to feeling I am an active participant in that scheme. The moment you begin playing this flute, I believe you will too. RH