This is a blending or variation of several items.

A shakuhachi is a Japanese top blown bamboo flute which uses a pentatonic scale, a quena is a South American end blown fife with a diatonic scale, a Ney is an middle eastern side blown flute.

These are side blown like a Ney with a shakuhachi mouthpiece but the tuning of a fife. I have been working with smaller diameters to make one which has a richer sound and less piercing amplitude.

This example has a Terra Sigilatta finish except on the decorations which are incised with Celtic knots and glazed with a crackle glaze. The holes are out of line to facilitate holding the flute at a ~45º angle while blowing. This one is left handed, because I can't hold the durn things right handed due to a spinal injury. It is a typical fife tuning of D major and plays in the first and most of the second register. It has an approximate aspect ratio of 1:20 and is fairly well tuned by hole placement rather than by hole size. The bowl is a similar finish, just the right size for tea as I play on the back porch and so I consider them a set.

Below is a comparison of three flutes, the one in the center is part of the smaller diameter experiment, and plays quite softly in the first and second register but becomes very shrill in the third. I have since added a silver ferrule on the blank end you can see in this photo. The short one with the leaf motif has a very small aspect ratio and so plays an octave plus two notes but that's about it. You can see my 12 inch scaling ruler off to the left.

Of course the problem with these is that they cannot be fine tuned. So far I have been extremely fortunate in that I have only overtuned a few instruments... because there is no going back! That is part of the reason I don't often have various sized holes as most fifes do, if I had to fiddle with each hole I would not be able to continue my experiments. Later I will spend more time on tuning, after I fix some problems with constructing blanks.

Here is one last photo, of some silver trim I put on a new set. This flute is actually one of the ones I overtuned, and the top three holes are sharp, while the whole flute is about 30 cents off it's fundamental. Pretty, but useless for anything other than my backyard.