Hi Guys, I am busy making two sets of Leo Rowsome drone’s from plans on Chris Bayleys web site, they are turning out quite nicely, Set 1. I have used Madagascan rose wood which will turn black with age and it is my favourite wood, It also gives a more strident sound than ebony, Set 2. I’m making out of holy dyed black, Holy gives a much warmer sound that ebony. I’m useing sheeps horn for some of the decor pieces which I was giving, but! I can’t decide which metal to use for the fittings?, I like brass and nickel silver but can’t make my mind up which to use, Is it not that crucial or is just a matter of what’s easiest and what is available, I sure if the makers of old could have obtained good quality brass or nickel silver tubing in different sizes they would have certainly have used it, I would have also have thought that in the old days in Ireland materials and tools would have been much more scarce and would have to be made by hand, May be this is why more older sets are made with brass fittings, “Any comments on your choice and why.” Thanks Stew. 
So if tubing is readily available now, why do pipemakers painstakingly roll ferrules from sheet stock??
Special diameters?
Tapered ferrules?
Or just being authentic to the original methods of pipemaking??
Hi Tony, I think its being authentic to the older ways of pipe making,
when I said tubeing I don’t mean the cheap thin gauge tubeing, I mean
Quality gauge tubeing, all the best Stew.
Thanks for the clarification.
As a matter of interest where do pipe makers source their woods and metals…is it easy to get metal tubing, imitation ivory etc.?
Ferrules are tapered. That’s why they are hand-made versus tubing. If tubing were appropriate, regardless of how good the quality of the tubing is, it would have been in use for the last 50 years. Quality sets have tapered ferrules friction-fitted. Its one of those things you should look for when buying a set.
djm
What about the metal for bass drone and bass regulator pipe(for the want of a better word) etc?
I absolutely disagree.
The type of metal seems to be more a matter of taste. Nickel-silver is a bit more brittle to work than brass, I am told. Beyond that, there is no difference other than appearance (and possibly a bit more costly).
djm
Quality brass & nickel tubing can quite easily be be tapered, :roll:
“But here’s one”
Two of todays biggest makers are useing stainless steel,
do you honestly think thee’s guys are standing there welding
there Ferrules? get a grip Guys. 
Why not?
“O” Lord! Why me, Here’s another one. 
Seriously…why not? Inquiring minds gotta know.
Yes, I’m curious, too. Who are these big-name makers who don’t roll their own ferrules? I know a couple of makers worked in steel in the past but got out of it as it was too much work and hard on the tools.
djm
quote:" do you honestly think thee’s guys are standing there welding
there Ferrules? get a grip Guys. "
Feedback from long-established pipemakers on this matter would be a good thing to read right about now…
Meanwhile, I prefer to roll my own. 
djm
…stoner.
The work involved in rolling stainless steel and seam welding it into 11.5mm and other sizes of tubing is far to complex, for which the pipemaker really needs, requireing tools and machines to do the job would totaly out cost the benefit of having them, more like he knows of a workshop where they will roll the stainless steel and seam weld it into tubeing for his requirements, or he knows a manufacturer who supplie’s tubing in various sizes, which some he can use for his requirements with just a small amount of welding if any at all needed. Maybe its a mark of todays pipe makers, and there skills with modern materials, but there again they might as well roll nickel silver its easier than working with stainless steel I would have thought, but at the end of the day the purpose of the ferrule is 1. to help stop the wood splitting and 2.to help give a good “sealing joint” where required. “And No its not to smoke on the sealing” 
. But each maker puts his decoration on the mounts to make them more attractive.
all the best Stew.
Of course Froment and williams roll their own steel tubing ,they are craftsmen arent they? they also slaughter their own cows and cure the leather ,they go to africa and fell their own timber and have been know to take the odd trip to Siberia and dig their own fossilised mammoth ivory after all they craftsmen arent they and thats what craftsmen do.
why else would you be paying all that money and waiting all that time for their pipes
RORY