Hillbillyflutes, Branch and Rivercane Flutes.

Hello. I am Jim Sinclair and call my flutes "Hillbilly Flutes".

 I get alot of questions about the origin of my family because I enjoy primitave crafts, people will ask if I am Native American. As far as we can find out my dad's side of the family is TRUE hillbilly from south west Missouri in the Ozarks. My mothers side came from Denmark. As far as we can tell there is no Native american anywhere.

 I started flint knapping about 1997. I was lucky enough to meet Jim Redfearn and DC Waldorf at Dane and Mary Martin's (Knappers Corner) when I first started breaking rocks.  

I got interested in making self bows after seeing Bill Metcalf make one from a osage stave with a machete in less than 1 hour. I was hooked and had to try it for myself.  I bought a couple of glueup kits and tried my hand at it. From there I found some osage staves. After making alot of splinters I was able to get a bow that actually shot. from there I went nuts. I enjoy taking a piece of wood and making a bow that realy shoots. I found a supply of river cane to make arrows from. I like to use knapped points and the arrows work very well.

My wife (Linda) and I  went to several Knapins and met Russell Davis (an amazing flute maker). I found one of his flutes that touched me, the sound of it spoke to me letting me know this is the one for me to take home. This gentlemans eyes light up when he talks about flutes. The excitement in him is contagious. If you are ever lucky enough to meet him you will see very quickly exactly what I mean. From the flute I bought from him I started to try my hand at it. I would get 1 out of every 8 or 10 that would even sound close to a flute. He must have felt sorry for me and sat down with me and showed me a few tricks that it would take me years (if ever) to figure out by myself.

I saw some branch flutes made by Fallen Branch Flutes on Ebay. Talk about some very exciting and beautiful flutes. I have since met Amos, John and Harold from Fallen Branch at the TNAFC (Talequah Native American Flute Circle). The pictures they post on Ebay do not do the flutes justice. The sound is even better. You guessed it I had to try a branch flute. Through trades and searching where people dump their yard trimmings I have found and tried Sunflower stalk, Agave, Crepe Myrtle, Caltapa, Aspen, Oak and Aromatic Cedar. At this point the Crepe Myrtle and caltapa have been my favorite.    

My flute prices start at $75+ shipping for the cane flutes then go up with the branch flutes. I have a PayPal account or will take USPS money orders. Flutes will ship within 3 days of money clearing. I pack these flutes like they were the crown jewels. Insurance is your option and I cannot be responsible for the flute when it gets to the Postal service. If you are interested in buying a flute I would be happy to email pictures of those I have available. Please email me at.

hillbillyflutes@yahoo.com  Please put flutes in the subject line so I don't think it is a spam email.

Look close there are babies here.

A friend in Arizona recently gifted me some agave and sunflower stalks to try. Very cool material and the flutes turned out that actually play. 

Here are 2 Agave flutes.