iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Here is the crack I mentioned in another thread. It begins about 6 inches from the mouthpiece. It seems to be growing wider unless it's just that I know it is there. There is one small section of the crack that opens through to the bore~I can suck air out of it....

If you play this stick for extended periods of time the crack will continue to grow as the interior absorbs moisture from your breath. I would leave the stick for a few days before effecting a repair. You may notice the crack closes up a bit as it dries out.

Kyle

Unless it is a big crack leaking seriously and needing to be filled, I tend to wrap transparent parafilm around it. It seals the cracks very nicely, it is not sticky (no glue, it is just being wrapped tightly around the stick) and it looks nice (people don't even notice it). here it is

http://www.2spi.com/catalog/supp/parafilm.php

Mahir thanks for this suggestion and your offer (via PM)~

How does the parafilm work at inhibiting the crack from expanding? I'm leaning towards using glue (maybe mixed with fine sawdust) then painting it.

OK guy's don't laugh to much ~ I think I'll bring the stick to a paint place and have them mix something that is as close as possible to the original color.

I let my sticks wear their scars with pride. My favourite Djalu stick has two large cracks just south of the mouthpiece that I repaired with charcoal powder and glue and they remain very visible, but stable, to this day and the repair was done in 2003. To each their own!

Kyle

I hear you Kyle~

If I need to make similar repairs on a flute I try to make them as inconspicuous as possible. The difference is that there is no paint
on the flutes so a scar is usually visible...
Then there is the little kid in me who waited for this "Christmas Pony" (Djalu Stick) forever and wants it to remain pristine (looking)....

Did you use charcoal/glue on a black painted area? Is the charcoal something you got out of a fire or is it the art type (various colors) used for drawing? Why charcoal instead of (wood) sawdust?

The colour on this Djalu stick is probably Jo Jo Sonja's red ochre acrylic paint, readily available on the internet + it looks like it has had something put on top(possibly a satin acrylic varnish or even a weak pva solution) as well as there is a sheen to the finish and the red ochre would normally be a matt(flat) finish. To me the crack does not look wide enough to use a glue/wood dust mix, I would just rub the glue/pva/ or whatever you are using across the crack so that it is forced right into it, that should be all you will need to do. You may also consider drilling a very small hole at both ends of each crack to stop it spreading, again, not everyone advocates this but if you are going to paint over the crack then it could help..

Paul

Parafilm -as you might guess- will not prevent the crack from spreading at all. It is just to seal it nicely and render your instrument playable without having to repair/paint it etc. To be honest, it is doing a great job in my opinion. Best approach is to not play it too much.

Sounds like a repair job Hawk, its an over-play crack it seems, don't play your instrument too early and too quickly and too much when you first get it, here's a little bit of info on maintenance and repair from the iDIDJ website:

http://www.ididj.com.au/theDidjeridu/maintain.html

http://www.ididj.com.au/theDidjeridu/maintain2.html

The pages are old and could do with an update but the basics are there.

If your Djalu stick is a great player, there's going to be little stopping you from playing it frequently other than willpower so I'd recommend a repair. Observe the behaviour of the crack over time, several days to a week or 2, and when it opens and closes. Marking the extremities of the crack with a pencil like Paul said will help you determine if there's any further movement too. I'd check if the walls of the stick are thinner than elsewhere in the crack region and also if there's a termite track there... you can do this by shining a bright light into the mouthpiece end to visually inspect the crack from the inside, tap lightly around the crack with your fingernail to hear for sound and wall thickness (thicker walls have a dull sound, thinner walls a lighter sharper sound when tapped). Also find out if there's oil in the bore or a sealant of other type, this will determine what sort of adhesive or resin you will use... water-based products do not stick to an oily surface for example.

A piece of charcoal is useful as you can get a very fine dust from it that will fit into any crack, unlike sawdust. You could dry-rub the crack with a piece of charcoal ensuring the crack is totally filled with charcoal power, try to push in as much as possible to fill all the available space in the crack. The next steps will depend on whether there's oil in the bore of not...

Good luck!

Guan

Thanks Guan! It appears that the bore is not oiled~looks dry to me though I am basing this on the appearance of my flutes when oiled and the other two old sticks I have.
this stick has traveled a great deal in the last few months. first from Alabama to Alaska then back to Alabama then to California then finally to Maine. All by UPS. And I think you're correct about playing to much to quickly. The day it arrived I played for probably an hour (knowing full well I should let it aclimate)~It is a great player and I was/am honored and excited to have it!

When I first noticed the crack I checked the surrounding wall thickness by tapping (flute making comes in handy) and found the crack is in a thinner area.

I have some yellow ochre that may work well in this repair? Do you think charcoal is best? (Thinking aloud here) Does the charcoal dust mixed with glue expand more, thereby sealing/filling the crack better, than a mixture of ochre? Ochre being mineral (stone) it seems like it would not absorb moisture and expand the same as charcoal (wood)....Maybe I am over thinking it huh?

No worries Hawk, so with no oil in the bore a water-based glue with PVA will suit. About ochre vs. charcoal or sawdust... I guess it could work but note that ochre and wood are very different substances, one is mineral and the other organic. But then again, I've seen sticks where the craftsman has got a bit of dirt from the ground and mixed it with PVA to seal knot holes in an instrument, it happens in Arnhem Land believe it or not, but such as repair job is neither long-lasting nor aesthetically pleasing.

As your PVA and (charcoal or sawdust) putty sets, it shrinks in volume... it is losing water content after all and thereby losing volume. So you could try experimenting first with different putty consistencies (ration of PVA:sawdust/charcoal/water) and see how they behave over time until set before deciding what you will use in the end on the Djalu mandapul. You could in addition also fill the termite track from the inside though it'd be a delicate job, maybe some people on here have some tips for that?

Good luck!

Guan