There is so much whistle forum discussion lately about brass, nickel, aluminum, and delrin, acetal, polymer whistles that I have to wonder if wooden whistles are becoming less and less popular. Maybe going extinct. Perhaps too much maintenance. I’m all for saving the trees, but, with proper environmental management and in particular, forestry, seems like those special beautiful woods would be available and more appreciated.
Afterall… the whistle is a woodwind instrument isn’t it?
Bob
Right from when I started playing any player I have ever known only ever spoke of the Tin Whistle.
I sure hope not!
Maintenance is no big deal, although lots of people obsess over it. A bit of oil once or twice a year isn’t difficult. That’s really about all that’s required.
I haven’t noticed any lack of talk of wood whistles. There was just a thread on grinters, and I’d mentioned lofgrens, and I’ve heard Busman whistles brought up from time to time, etc.
I don’t think it has to do with wood being a thing of the past… It’s just that whistles normally aren’t made out of wood.. So, of course if the majority of whistles aren’t wood, the majority of whistles mentioned wouldn’t be either.. It seems the amount of times wooden whistles and other materials are brought up is quite proportional to the amount of wood whistles there are in comparison to metal ones.
Wood whistle require an enormous amount of labor and expert skill to make a good one,.
So naturally cost must be higher.
High costs limit wide popularity, thats just basic econmics.
Now that said, I’ve owned a fair number of whistle and a Busman high d was
one of the few that made me say WOW after every use.
And, BTW, maint. was no bother.
The recent Grinter set FS was the inspiration for my query. And Busman whistle is a gem if there ever was one as it was one of the first whistles I purchased.
And BTW, I’ve always preferred the term pennywhistle 
although I’ve said tin whistle occasionally. Nothing cheap about a pennywhistle made from wood. Awe, the aesthetic.
Ytliek,
I own several wooden whistles and enjoy them not only for their warm tonal qualities, but for the beauty inherent to wood as well as an appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes into making them. Efforts to maintain them are as Paul Busman stated, minimal.
Tree hugging is highly overrated but if we must go there I will simply eat a beaver, but strictly in the name of conservation! 
In other words, I have no plans to give up my appreciation for wooden whistles. 
Cheers Mates,
Cayden
I don’t think ‘pennywhistle’ was ever (much) used in Ireland, not totally sure what the term was in the UK. I have always hear ‘The Tin Whistle’ (and even now I hear that in my mind said in the voice of Micho Russell) or just ‘the whistle’ for short. Some old people just used to call it simply ‘the flute’ though (as opposed to ‘the timber flute’), which probably has to do with the name in Irish.
I was just having a little poke ofcourse, as, especially in the past, wooden whistles pretty much were not on the horizon (except the odd exceptions like John Killourhy’s or the Indian bamboo Joe Cunneen went around with).
There’s one that I’ve added to my Hall of Fame C&F entries…
Best wishes.
Steve
Steve,
Glad to see you are on your game Lad! 
Hey, it’s the least I can do for Mother Nature! 
“Lowest” regards,
Cayden
Hmm, I’ve never heard of that to be honest. I would never have thought of it as a woodwind. Round here it’s known as either the whistle or the tin whistle. I have to admit that I find the tone of wooden whistles generally quite irritating. All a matter of taste of course.
Hmmmm… I must be misreading this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_whistle
I love wood
I’m not a Wiki basher but that IS Wikipedia…
The first time I came across a wooden whistle was maybe around 1987 when an uilleann pipes making friend brought a boxwood Jon Swayne whistle along and insisted on demonstrating it on quite a few occasions. The things was loud, sounded wrong, was, in short, purely obnoxious and it didn’t seem to blend in with any other instrument.
More recently, maybe a decade ago, I happened on a few relative beginners in rapid succession over a short space of time playing Abell whistles, all playing them very much out of tune.
They weren’t the best experiences. I have played a number of wooden whistles since but never found much in them that made them in any way desirable for me. If they sound like a wooden instrument (towards the recorder spectrum) I don’t think the sound is appropriate, if they try emulate an (for want of a better word) old style whistle, there’s really not much point. But ofcourse, tastes and mileage vary.
OK, now you are making me nervous! 
Cayden
This from a man who says he will eat a beaver—solely for conservation purposes. 
Best wishes.
Steve
Hey Steve,
And despite the recent overreaching arm of government aiming to make such activity illegal in Viginia, I am happy to say that I can still “save trees” there as well as to prohibit such has been deemed unconstitutional. 
I hope to AG in Virginia does not try to prohibit us from fingering and blowing our whistles or we might all be in for a fight!
Cheers,
Cayden
Anyone care to share some of the exotic woods they’ve come across in whistles? Any preferences?
Personally, I feel it’s not the wood that matters. It comes down more to how the whistle is designed and how skilled the maker is at working the wood. There are enough examples of rosewood whistles that are terrific as well as those that are pretty terrible. I have had three Thin Weasel high D’s from Glenn Schultz - blackwood, cocobolo and yellowheart. They were all remarkably similar in sound and playing character. I have two of Paul Busman’s whistles - one rosewood and one in olivewood. Both play and sound quite similar. And that is what I think matters. How consistent is the maker in producing their instruments out of various timbers.
I personally do not think that a particular wood has a particular sound. Buy a delrin whistle of the same design from one of the several of the wooden whistles makers that also work in that polymer material and compare the results. The wood is merely a container for the vibrating air column. But wood does dictate certain practical dimensions and methods of manufacture versus metals and polymers. So there can be differences. But we all know the mythology of “timber timbre”. Don’t we?
Lots of timbers have the characteristics that will help make a good whistle - tight grain, high density, dimensional stability, etc.. Still other less capable woods can be used with a little help from coatings and stabilizing treatments. So there really isn’t much wood that can’t be made into a durable and playable whistle. I like woods with dramatic figure, color and grain such as snakewood, olivewood, acacia koa, cocobolo, kingwood, curly katalox, Brazilian tulipwood, etc., etc., etc.. Colors are nice too and it is surprising how many colors occur naturally in different woods - reds, greens, oranges, pinks, purples, grays and yellows. There are really too many nice woods to mention. There is literally no end to the variety. That is something about which I will always remain in awe.
For me wooden whistles are interesting because of the variety of color, grain and figure that is unique in every piece of wood. I have a lot of wooden whistles. But I do have more plastic, aluminum and brass whistles. But the allure of the wood far outstrips the practicality of the other materials. I decided a long time ago that the only way to fulfill the allure of timber whistles (and flutes) was to make them myself. It is not a simple thing to do either. I do enjoy the effort it takes. I really like turning a piece of wood from square to round and seeing what comes out in the wood.
Whistles, perhaps not exactly what we know as whistles here, have been made from wood for centuries if not for several millennium in many cultures around the globe. And while we do have the luxury of many other materials these days, I do not think that wooden whistles are anywhere near in danger of becoming a thing of the past.
Feadoggie