A Guide to Cleaning Gong Flumies
How to Clean a Gong Friction Mallet • A Guide to Gong Flumie Playing Maintenance and Cleaning
Using your gong flumies (friction mallets) for meditation, sound therapy, or musical performances, you will enjoy an exceptional spectrum of sounds from your gong. Yet it's essential to keep your flumies’ and your gong’s surfaces well-maintained and cleaned to preserve and enjoy sound quality at its fullest.
In this flumie cleaning guide, we'll explore the steps to properly clean and care for your musical companion. This article is meant to inform on flumie cleaning and share best practices / experience. Please note that no liability can be assumed for any damage, injury, or adverse outcomes resulting from the use of the information provided. By choosing to clean your flumie(s) based on the instructions in this guide, you do so at your own risk. If you have any doubts or concerns about cleaning your flumie(s) we recommend to get in touch with the manufacturer for further advice. Please also check the gong cleaning guide for detailed information on cleaning and maintaining your gong’s surface.
0. Preventive Care/ Flumie Maintenance Tips:
High quality flumies are usually hand-made of natural caoutchouc or unique silicone compositions. They are basically a magnet for dust and dirt. Once the surface has deteriorated, it is almost irreversible. This is why it is important to take constant preventive care to secure the longevity and functionality of your friction mallets’ surface.
The following factors put the surface of your flumie at risk:
dust
residues from polishing & gong surface cleaning products
1. Prepare the surface of your flumie(s) before playing:
Gently wipe a damp (use filtered water) microfibre cloth on the surface of the head on your flumie, making sure to move towards the shaft (not away from the shaft/handle), then dry.
Super high set by Bear Love: moist your clean fingers with filtered water and clean the surface of the white head of your flumie with your fingertips, making sure not to apply pressure that could eventually disconnect the head from the carbon fibre shaft (move towards the shaft/handle). Cleaning with your hands in this case assures that you sense the material and avoid mechanical damage to your flumies. Then gently dry the surface with a dry microfibre cloth.
2. Prepare the surface of your gong before flumie playing:
Nickel Silver Gong: Swipe the surface with a dry, soft 100% cotton cloth. Find detailed information for deep cleaning your nickel silver gong surface: A Guide to Cleaning your Gong
TamTam, Feng Gong: Remove dirt with a damp, soft 100% cotton cloth, then rub the gong surface dry immediately.
3. Care after playing:
Clean your flumies as in 1.
Store your flumies away in a plastic bag to avoid any dust, then the plastic bag with the flumies into a cotton bag to avoid any UV radiation
Store your mallets away in a cotton bag so they will not attract any dust, separately from your flumies.
In general, store them as dry as possible and away from direct sunlight / UV light.
Apply a soft cover to your gong or store it in a gong bag. In general, it is best for gongs to be hanging as much as possible. If it is openly hanging in the room, make sure to regularly wipe your gong’s surface with a cotton cloth.
4. Flumie issues & repair:
How to revive a Olli Hess natural caoutchouc flumie with a hardened layer: see blog post
Olli Hess natural caoutchouc flumies can have little white spots on their surface, which is a characteristic of the material: more details & even more details
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If you would like further input on your flumie playing, both online and presence trainings are available or get in touch about what you might need in particular:
Thank you so much for reading this article on Taking care of your gong flumies!
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