BREAKING NEWS: FIRST ELF TO GAIN JAPANESE CITIZENSHIP
I received my Elfsong D, made by Sandy the Chief Elf, this evening (Copper Tone, natural finish). 
Wow.
This wee Elf sang, is singing, and will be singing – calling the people in this land from glen to glen, and down the mountain side.
As soon as I opened the package the aura of quality shot my sleepy-head. It woke me up. 
The whistle feels substantial in my hand. I’ve not actually played a traditional-bore hand-made whistle, so for me it’s one of the heaviest whistle in the key of D I currently own, and it’s about twice as big as my narrow-bore Hoover. The wall is thick, and I think the stability on the bottom notes has got something to do with its thickness and the structure of the fipple.
The fipple looks and feels marvellous. The colour, and the pattern of the grains is just fine and the finish is already that of an antiquity. l love this feature.
It plays nicely on both octaves. The transition between the octaves, and particularly from notes E - bottom D (which always caused trouble on my old Feadog) is never a hasstle – it doesn’t flip. Won’t make a squeaky sound that can happen alot in the ‘bad’ ones. The sound — well how can I put this — is warm, pure, open, friendly, no chiff but yet whistle-like, can be played also like a rexxxder (if I try), deep, thick, haunting, soothing, soft, encouraging, merry, ‘elf’ — it stirs my heart, soul and mind. 
The responsiveness is great, and so you must be careful not to ‘come down wrong on the hole (thanks Dale for the expression!)’.
The whole thing is professional and makes me feel I should be really careful and put much dilligence when playing on this whistle, and at the same time realise how a newbie whistle player needs basic understandings of whistling before attempting a serious High-End (like AbeXX?). One thing I like about this whistle is that the edges of the holes are somewhere midway between crisp and smooth. The slur is easy and sounds superb. The E# hole is big and you can acquire a nice F nat. sound on this whistle, too.
fingerings
G# XXO XXX
A# XOX XXX
C OXX XOX or OXX OOO (sharp)
I love playing an air on my whistle. Since the day I got hooked unto WhOA my favourite tune was Sally Gardens, but it looks like I’ve got to go to the piano room so as not to bother my family (they ain’t no elves. They don’t talk no elf language 
)You can almost feel the flow of the voice under your fingers on this whistle. As I said the nice finish on the edges of the holes makes it real easy to do a tap/cut/roll/cran, as well.
You need to sort of ‘blow in’ though, especially in the upper octave. For me it took me awhile to figure out how to keep the high B and C# note. It plays nicely now 
Another thing that should be mentioned is the maker’s generosity and passion. As well as being a professional whistlesmith, Sandy knows how a true professional should be. Included in my package were so much helpful and delightful materials; some notes, cards, an instruction as to how this elf should be taken care of, and a nice-looking soft pouch (with Elfsong logo on it)…she even enclosed a CD! This was a surprise for me. Certainly it was worth waiting for :- )
<><
Tac
“The Moon’s gone down, but alone I lie”… Lewis, TWHF