I have a Kerry Pro Low D on loan at the moment on a try before I (possibly) buy arrangement. It’s a very nice whistle, much louder overall, much stronger bottom end compared to the old Chieftain OS I currently own, hole spacing is a bit more user friendly as well (the ‘E’ hole is larger than the OS bringing the ‘D’ hole closer) but it does have an annoying ‘buzzy’ quality to the tone as if harmonics from the next register are creeping in.
On close inspection it looks to me as if the blade has been doctored, it’s noticeably marked and scratched, it also slopes slightly at one end and the blade edge is a little uneven (I can’t see Phil Hardy letting this out of the door so I think this has been done since)
Is this possibly the cause of the problem and how do I rectify this? I’ve read in the past of some brave souls who adjust the blade opening the window to strengthen bottom end etc.
Hmmm, that’s pretty ugly looking. I won’t speculate on how the whistle got that way, but I’d say pass if you aren’t happy with the sound. Find another whistle, don’t mess with attempting to solve any issues, as you’ll likely make things worse.
Thanks for that Loren, what do you think the culprit was hoping to achieve with this act of vandalism (chap who’s loaned it to me didn’t do it, so I can’t ask him) ?
All I know for certain is that the whole window, blade, and block chamfer are ugly bits of work indeed. Can’t speak to the motivations that led to such poor tool usage though.
Despite Loren’s sage advice and common sense dictating I leave this alone, I bought the Kerry Pro (at a very good price) and with heart a trembling, lashings of water and well used square of 1200 grit Wet & Dri I took the plunge and … It seems I’ve got away with it PHEW!!
Don’t have a working cam at the moment but it certainly looks a good deal better, the gouges and file marks are all nicely smoothed off, I took out the chips in the blade and very gently levelled this, blade is still not 100% level, seems a few microns lower at some side than the other, although tempted to try resolve this I’m loath to do it as this will effectively increase the window size.
The end result:
The annoying ‘buzzy’ quality the tone had has all but gone, it does make a, very slight appearance second octave A and above. The overall tone of is subtly altered, whistle now has a more ‘Cosmic Drainpipey/Overton’ like tone (which I like) and it’s noticeably louder (and it wasn’t a demur whistle before)
Really pleased with the outcome and now very tempted to start dabbling with some other whistles I’m less than happy with, but I’d better not, I wouldn’t get away with it twice I’m sure?
