I recently inherited a wooden fife, I am not a musician but I would like to play around with it.
The problem is I am having great difficulty getting any type of sound out of it. Looking at it closely there is a crack in the bottom but you can't see light through it so I don't think this is the problem. The other thing I noticed is that the mouth hole seems to be undercut on the sides rather than straight. Could this be the problem, if so is it correctable?
Is there anything else that may be preventing me from playing it?

Thank you for your help.

Fishingboat

Well, its possible that that crack could be causing that problem. However, a crack would more likely just change the pitch than not make a sound possible.

You should try moving your upper lip way back. Beginner flute (or fife) players tend to stick their upper lip way out. I am also a fellow fife player!

There could be a leak through the crack even if you cannot see light. Other things that could be causing the problem: the head cork might be leaking or out of position; the pads might not be sealing; keys might not be closing fully.

Contra - I know you were only trying to help but a fife has no keys...

As for the fife's playability, if you were to upload a photo and link us to it would help determine the issue. Is the cork on the inside loose? Depending on where it is and the severity of the crack, that MAY be your issue. Some fifes had a more narrow embouchure hole (the hole you blow across) which wasn't much larger than the 6 finger holes which requires a much tighter embouchure (your mouth) to play on it. I had a fife in high school that I could NEVER play the low D on because of how narrow the embouchure hole was. I thought it was me before I tried another maker's fife and realized it was my fife that was the issue.

Maybe since you're just starting out on it you should invest in a cheater: http://www.beafifer.com/mouthpiece.htm . A cheater will allow you to play the fife and learn the fingerings/notes but you'd blow into the end like a whistle and the air stream would cross the embouchure hole like a regular fife player's air stream would.

Good luck!

Well there you go - I'm only a coarse bassoonist & general woodwind repairer who only touches flute to help make ends meet. in my experience a lot of people call any flute like instrument that's smaller than a flute a fife never mind about how many keys it has

Thank you all for your help with my problem. After posting this note I found some sites on wooden fifes and seem to have found the answer to my problems.
The bore of a 6 hole wooden fife needs to be very clean and slick to be able to play properly. It was recommended that the bore be sanded very smooth and coated with several layers of wood finishing oil, like tung oil. They felt this would be more of an issue than the crack (provided no light shown through). I refinished the fife bore, reset the cork. I am now able to produce sounds from it, they can not necessarily be classified as notes but I'm working on that. There are no builder's marks on it so it could be homemade, My grand father managed several wood shops during his life time and could have been made for him in one of the shops as a decoration not a musical instrument. I can not say if it will ever be able to be tuned but it is fun to play around with.

Again thank you for your input!