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Mar 11, 2014Print this page

Using Puritan Foam Tipped Swabs to Care for Woodwind Instruments

Foam Tipped Swabs for Cleaning Musical Instruments

We always appreciate the many versatile uses for Puritan's medical products and Dr. Eric Legg brings yet another use to light for our foam tipped swabs: cleaning wooden flutes.

It was at a local fall festival that Dr. Legg was first exposed to the sounds of the Native American Flute. The unique and relaxing music engaged him so much that he set out to research where he could purchase one of his own.

That's when Dr. Legg stumbled upon Brent Haines, the owner/founder of Woodsounds Flute Company located in Utah. It was Brent who made Dr. Legg’s first flute and Dr. Legg who first introduced Brent to Puritan’s products and how they can be used to help in caring for Native American Flutes.

Caring for Native American Flutes

Like many instruments, proper care and maintenance is essential so that the flute sounds and looks its best. Native American Flutes are very delicate instruments and, like any wood product, they are particularly susceptible to damage from moisture. Just from playing them, moisture quickly accumulates on the inside chamber as warm air from the player’s breath comes in contact with the cooler wood.

If left untreated, the moisture can crack the flute and also promote the growth of bacteria and fungi. Cleaning the outside is easy, however removing moisture from the inside of the flute is a different story. It is difficult to reach the flutes internal chambers without using some sort of narrow probe.

The Search for the Perfect Puritan Product

From working in the medical field, Dr. Legg had been familiar with Puritan’s vast assortment of quality medical products for a number of years. He experimented with some of the swabs that were kept on hand in his office to assist in cleaning his flute.

However, the swabs they had in stock had technical issues that prevented the proper cleaning of his flute. Some had tips that were too big to fit inside the flute. Others that were non-absorbent. And some had handles that were too short. Nothing seemed to work the way he needed them to. He tried products made by other companies as well, but nothing was the perfect match to what he was looking for.

Enter Puritan’s Foam Tipped Swabs

Finally, Dr. Legg went to the Puritan Medical Products website and got in touch with a customer service representative who directed him to our online product catalog. It was there that he found a few swabs that looked promising, and was sent a number of samples to experiment with. By trial and error, the foam tipped swab, #1806-PCFL, ended up being the perfect solution.

Puritan’s 1806-PCFL is a large foam-over cotton tipped applicator that is firmly bonded to a polypropylene handle. The large foam tipped swab provides extra absorbency and absorbs extra fluids during cleaning and contamination removal. Both Brent and Dr. Legg found that the lint and residue-free qualities were far superior to a cotton tipped swab because leaving cotton and other residual debris inside the flute after cleaning is much too risky.

When Dr. Legg sent Brent a few swabs to see if they would be acceptable, Brent was immediately thrilled with the quality and performance, stating that Puritan’s #1806-PCFL was a safe tool for the extraction of moisture from the flute; a superb product!

flocked-swabs-samples

Today, both Dr. Legg and Mr. Haines recommend Puritan’s foam tipped swab to use in the proper cleaning of one’s flute. Check out Brent Haines’ video below to see for yourself how to properly care for your Native American Style Flute using Puritan’s quality single-use medical products.

His music is beautiful, and we highly recommend you watch the whole thing. But, if you don’t have time, jump to about 10:00 minutes in to see a demonstration of how Haines cleans his flute with our foam tipped swab.

Want to learn more? Don't hesitate to contact one of our product specialists today.

Topics: Puritan, Controlled Environments

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