The sound of music: Woods Bay artist crafts handmade flutes

A simple walk through the woods is different for Niko Keys.

Sure, the Bigfork area flute maker enjoys the fresh air, peace and quiet, and connection with nature as much as the next hiker, but when Keys spends time in the woods, he is often a man on a mission.

Keys is ever on the lookout for perfect materials needed to turn even the simplest of branches and sticks into musical instruments that are both simple and exquisite.

Keys took up flute making as a hobby roughly six years ago after spending much of his life building pipe organs for a group in California before opening his own business in Colorado.

The son of a Czechoslovakian music teacher, Keys began taking music lessons at a young age and began playing the pipe organ when he was 10. An inquisitive boy who learned to work with his hands, Keys built his first pipe organ out of PVC pipe and a hairdryer when he was 12.

Considered a dying instrument by many, Keys nevertheless turned his love of pipe organs into a career as he learned how to voice organs, the skill of manipulating the instrument’s pipes to make it sound. It was quite the step up from the piano he had learned to play as a child.

“Organs are just cooler than pianos. A piano doesn’t fill the room with sound the way a pipe organ does. Pipe organs require a room. The room is part of the instrument and they are not separable,” he said. “How many other musical instruments can you say that about?”

As much a Keys enjoys organ making, it is a lengthy process that can take many months to more than a year to complete a project. Flute making, though, works on many of the same principles and takes far less time. What started as a hobby led Keys to open his hand-made flute business, Cedar Cabin Music, on Flathead Lake’s east shore in 2017.

These days, Keys is ever on the lookout for the perfect piece of wood to make his instruments, be it alder, maple, cedar or his favorite, elderberry.

“I don’t really discriminate based on types of woods and it is gratifying to me to use only native woods that grow in this area,” Keys said. “I like to believe I have a good eye for the materials that I think will work. That being said, I do leave a lot of pieces of wood in the forest.”

First, Keys must identify and collect the perfect piece of wood. What qualifies as perfect? The straighter and longer the better, with no cracks or splits and preferably dead and dry.

Once he locates the right piece of wood, Keys strips off the bark to aid in drying, bores out the middle of the wood to roughly the diameter he is looking for and puts wood glue on the ends to help keep the escaping moisture from causing cracks. Then comes the drying process, which takes roughly one year for every inch of thickness. Starting with dead wood speeds this process up considerably.

Once the wood is dry, Keys can set to work carving and fine tuning the flute before sanding it and finishing it with a series of oil and wax treatments. Not counting drying time, Keys says he can make an instrument in 4-5 days.

Along with his wooden flutes, Keys also works with other materials, including using animal horns to make gemshorns. Keys says the gemshorns, curved, ocarina-like instruments, are made using a simple process that is similar to that used to make his wooden flutes, but with one major difference — the smell.

“I am not allowed to make gemshorns in the house anymore,” he admitted. “I would have to describe the smell of drilling the holes into the horns as something like a wet dog, only much worse.”

These days, Keys has even expanded to take the challenge of making stringed instruments, having recently created his version of a Chinese guqin.

“I heard one and thought it sounded really cool, so I wanted one,” Keys said. “I found them online for $400-500 and I thought to myself, that looks simple enough that I could make it myself.”

Just like that, Keys had added yet another instrument to his ever-expanding repertoire.

No matter what material Keys uses to make his instruments, he is proud to say that it is all locally sourced.

“A lot of the comparable native style flutes you see for sale in tourist shops are turned on a lathe. That’s fine. That is a valid method of woodworking, but it is not what I am about,” he said. “For me, it is more rewarding to use materials that I find in the woods.”

The price of the instruments Keys makes vary depending on how much time was put into making them, but he says that he has never priced one above $600.

Keys says he still struggles to see himself as an artist, but he is glad to hear stories from those who have purchased and enjoyed his creations.

“I don’t necessarily view myself as an artist. My creations are musical instruments. They are meant to be played - they are not meant to sit on a shelf as display pieces,” he said. “People should be out there making music with them.”

Keys’ work will be on display and for sale beginning at 5 p.m. on Jan. 31 at Whistling Andy Distillery. For more information, visit www.montanaflutes.com. ¦