Got an excellent remedy for keeping my pipes from falling apart during the winter. Use unwaxed dental floss and bagpipe hemp (unwaxed) it really works great…My home heating takes a lot of the humidity out of the air causing the wood to shrink..
I got this tip from my upipe maker Kirk Lynch…he’s always there to support his customers.. Thanks Kirk
delete
We have a problem in that hemp products are difficult to find here. Interestingly, you can get cotton string with the same size and behaviour made for making doilies, and its much cheaper than bagpipe suppliers would charge for hemp. Try a sewing/craft supplier.
djm
The yellow “hemp” from GHB suppliers is not hemp but flax. It has been many years since it was made of hemp. Dental floss is good for a foundation with the flax being the top couple of wraps. Shoe thread, available from cobbler suppliers is the same stuff without the yellow dye. At 10 weight it is finer than the yellow stuff and better for the smaller joints in the UP. Some joints are so much tighter tolerance than GHB that there is only room for one or two wraps anyway. Some pipers use silk or cotton sewing thread. It is used for the top wraps over foundation wrapping or without if there is not much room.
Ted
PTFE,
Some one told me once that it means “piping tape for everything”,
Tommy
Actually, I prefer the waxed floss as it it less likely to fray. I’ve never seemed to have any noticable wear on the tuning slides, but as we know the physical universe has a nasty habit of changing from workshop to workshop.
Marc
i’ve used cotton, nylon, and acrylic sewing thread. some waxed with a form of lip balm some not. I’ve used waxed dental floss, but i’ve found that the larger container of the same brand doesn’t stick as well as the smaller one, and so i have to add that lip balm stuff. I play the trumpet, and there is a lip balm style form of slide grease.
Yes! Use waxed hemp/flax or dental floss. Don’t use the unwaxed stuff.
Depends on where you live, of course, but if you use unwaxed hemp and your pipes are subjected to a more humid environment, your joints are more liable to swell up and then you’ll have trouble sitting down and stuff and oh man, it’s just horrible.
Oh, and don’t eat Play-Doh either. Except the blue stuff. The blue stuff ain’t so bad.
Yeah… kinda salty! 
PD.
What about that crusty stuff in the corners of your eyes? Is that safe to eat? 
djm
It better be, or I’m in trouble.
I’m not sure how that works other than to have the dry wrapping remain more squishy and take up some of the shrinkage better. However, dry hemp does not seal these joints at all. Not at all.
Royce
Hi all,
I thought I’d bring this thread back from the brink of death to inform you of a rather pointless discovery.
While clogging up vast quantities of my brain’s limited grey matter over the weekend studying Japanese kanji characters, I discovered that the kanji for “hemp/flax” can also mean “paralysis.”
Now ain’t that just dandy?
I have found that the definition of “paralysis”, in the ancient Cran O’Craic dictionary is: The humming sound that mushrooms make during a forest fire.
What!? Time for sleep. 2:18am.
I have heard over time from several pipers that many unnatural products (i.e. thread containing polyester, teflon tape, plastic floss etc) shouldn’t be used where wood is concerned. Though metal on metal may be fine. The concern is that over time it can cut into the wood. I use 100% cotton thread and put some vaseline on it to provide a seal. Some long-time pipers have told me that vaseline shouldn’t affest the wood, however, it is a petroleum based product. I suppose waxed hemp is about the closest to this, but cotton thread and vaseline are more redily available in the house. Anyone have any views?
For tenons and slides, I use cotton thread and use some black wax on the first 6-8" to stick it on. I wrap until the things fit together snugly and will insert and remove without much difficulty and the slides take some effort to move. I don’t coat the thread unless I have to use some ptfe for a quick tightning. I don’t like it because it tends to bunch up if things don’t fit just right.
When the weather changes in the spring, be prepared and start dissassembling stuff first, then you can remove thread as humidity increases.
Add thread as needed when the mainstock shoots out of the cup in the fall.
I have heard that silk thread is recommended for wet blown stuff like ghb and flutes.
And you say you live in Canada? 
for adding a little thickness during winter shrinkage, I use dental tape. It is much thicker than floss per se (you’d be hard pressed to get it between your teeth) and it is tacky. Adds just enough thickness to keep your pipes from shooting around the room. I would not use it exclusively for joints though. I am not sure if it would shrink/expand enough with the seasons.
t
Roger, good one! What I have seen is that people in Ireland who give information about using hemp really do have access to real hemp twine. Hemp has always remained available as a good source of fibre in Europe (fabrics, rope, dietary and otherwise).
No-one is making hemp twine available here, and the US phobia about the word “hemp” is preventing such products from being developed here (major trading partner, etc.). US Customs is turning back Canadian hemp rope, clothes, etc. at the border, possibly for fear that Americans cannot be trusted not to smoke their own clothes.
djm