Dented Tenon - Part II

In our last post, we saw a badly dented footjoint tenon.  We'll now take a look at the steps our repair technician took to reshape the tenon back into its original form.  Because silver is a soft metal, you do not need to heat the tenon for this repair.  Our technician initially placed the joint onto a body mandrel.  She then tapped lightly around the tenon with a small plastic hammer, pressing the metal of the tenon against the mandrel.  The goal is to press out any gaps between the tenon and the mandrel.  After tapping out the gaps, she then burnished the tenon -- smoothing the metal along the mandrel once again.

Although it may look like a simple process, it is always best to take this type of a repair directly to your repair technician.  Theoretically, it is a simply process to reshape the tenon.  However, because the metal is soft, it is also very easy to cause more damage to the instrument if one attempts this repair without the skill and experience of an authorized repair tech.  As you can see, a successful repair with leave your flute's tenon as good as new -- perfectly cylindrical and sealing properly.

Gap between tenon and mandrel is visible on the left

Reshaping begins by tapping tenon against mandrel

Gap is now closing from the tapping process

This side is much more flush against the mandrel

Final step is burnishing tenon along mandrel

Tenon is round again -- good as new!