OK sorry for being a huge newbie but I haven’t seen anything on how to clean a whistle. Are you supposed to wipe them out after using at all? During practice one day I was having trouble with some notes and noticed there was spit in it. I flung it to clear it and went on. But that got me thinking about it. Mine is metal but I notice some are wood so there must be a way to properly take care of them. I have a hard time imagining I am the only one with spit in my whistle. (Aaaaggghhhh to many jokes!!!)
I have all wood whistles except for a Goldie, which is metal. I seldom if ever swab them out; if they have been well played in, this does them no harm.
Once they are dry, a bit of almond oil every so often is not a bad thing, and can improve tone in instruments made of more absorbent woods - since most wood whistles are made of blackwood (grenadilla), which is very resinous, this is hardly necessary.
You can even rinse wooden whistles out with warm water if you feel the need. Use common sense and don’t leave them immersed for more than a minute or two. Oiling might be a good idea once they’ve dried off.
You could make a swab using a thin wood dowel and a piece of cotton rag tied to it.
Or you can pull out a gun cleaning kit an use a patch loop on the rod with a flannel patch.
Mostly I just put them away up right so they drain (metal and plastic whistles).
I swab my whistles out every time I play. I know from playing clarinet and sax for fifty years how crud can build up over time. And once it’s dried on it’s hard to remove. Also I wash my whistles with soap and water about every three or four months or so for a thorough cleaning. Possibly I’m just getting anal retentive in my old age.
I use a recorder/flute swab stick with a piece of microfiber on the end to clean out my wood whistles every time I play them. I oil them (using the same swab stick but with a separate piece of microfiber) three or four times/year inside and out with almond oil (being very careful around the blade edge, which I don’t oil), let it sit for a couple of hours, then wipe all of it off that will come off. I use a pipe cleaner with very diluted (about 10 drops to a quart of water )dish washing soap and warm water to clean the windway.
Metal whistles I wash thoroughly every couple of weeks inside and out with the same diluted dish soap mixture using the above swab/microfiber and a small pipe cleaner for the windway. You’ll want to dry the brass whistles very well inside and out so they don’t react to cleaning agents or impurities in the cleaning water. Warning. If you want your brass whistles to have that nice patina, (I’m ambivalent about this) just rinse the outside and don’t scrub it or you will remove some of this.
The soap mixture has the added benefit, for those who have the problem, of reducing clogging.
If you want a polished whistle, aluminum, nickel, silver, or brass, (can of worms alert ) I use Nevr Dull, then wash them thoroughly as above since it contains chemicals. I also use Renaissance Wax on the brass whistles, or whistle parts, that I want to remain shiny. Some, I let the patina develop. It is a grand experiment for me whether to polish or not to polish, I argue with myself about it all the time.
Well, that’s enough emoticons for one message I guess. Oops, maybe not.
The labium needs oiling as much if not more than anywhere else, because that’s where the stream of moist air impacts the end grain of the wood in a very thin section. Most recorder care manuals (not that I have a huge collection) will recommend oiling it.
These are The whistles i actually use, (have at least 6 more around, among them a fabulous Generation Bb i can’t find a.t.m.)
The oldest is the brass Generation with red tape around the mouthpiece (the tape is just to be able to find my whistles again at sessions ) it’s from the late 60’s
All whistles, except the Hammy Hamilton low D is at least 17 years old, they have all been fed mostly air and cared for… not much
They are from left to right:
Clarke D
Nickel Generation C
Brass ----" ----- (late 60’s vintage)
Hammy Hamilton low D
Eagle detachable D, bought in Dublin 1995
Clarke C
Brass Generation D, mouthpiece of unknown origin, probably my best D whistle..
And another Brass Generation C, hand picked in music store early 90’s (they had like 16 of them and i tried them all and chose this one..
Contrary to their appearance i actually do rinse them occasionally with soapy water and Q-tip the mouthpiece/blade
Don’t over do it oiling that thin blade. It can easily get saturated which sometimes warps it or softens the wood. Over oiling in general is not necessary. Let the whistle dry for a day or two before oiling, then apply a thin film. After about 10 minutes, you can swab out the excess.
I definitely do NOT recommend actually washing wooden whistles. Swab them out after playing, and keep them in a ventilated case.
I’ll admit it was a big surprise to me when I came across this advice on the Tom Prescott site - advice I have never needed to follow! However I assume Prescott knows his business.
One advantage of the recorder design is that it is easy to remove and replace the block because of the upstand, so you have much better accesss to the bore for maintenance, and also to the windway roof and the block itself. With whistles this would be a risky business since you can’t easily locate the block at the right angle in the headjoint. And some makers seem to glue their blocks in place anyway.
Oiling itself is a hotly disputed topic - I recall one baroque flute site recommending that the bore always be oiled before playing and swabbed out thoroughly afterwards. But that would be more to do with tone than maintenance. Personally I oil my instruments when I remember to - a couple of times a year.
I think the dangers of oiling are more related to build up of waxy deposits than any damage caused by actual penetration of the wood, which is pretty minimal.
Depends partly on what kind of wood is used. On some of the woods I’ve used, my initial in-shop oiling definitely and visibly penetrates through and through within a day or two. On the very thin blade, oil easily penetrates. In fact, for some of the more porous woods, I tend to coat the blade with cyanoacrylate glue inside and out to prevent it’s deforming from excess moisture and/or oil. I just did a repair on a 6 year old Birdseye Maple whistle where the blade was so warped as to make the whistle unplayable, although I can’t say if this was from oiling or breath moisture. I rebored the whole whistle, reshaped the blade and coated it with CA glue and all was well.
The labium needs oiling as much if not more than anywhere else, because that’s where the stream of moist air impacts the end grain of the wood in a very thin section. Most recorder care manuals (not that I have a huge collection) will recommend oiling it.
Every recorder book I have ever seen (and I have a lot of them) says you NEVER EVER get oil on the labium (or the windway). What you want the airstream to do is form a laminar layer over a surface moisture film. Oil the labium and the surface film can’t form - it breaks up into droplets, which have the same aerodynamic effect as if the wood was breaking up into splinters.
Well, a quick search on google shows some variety of opinion on this topic, but there seems to be a majority view (from mostly industrial and craftsman makers’ sites) that the labium should be oiled. I do it myself and haven’t experienced any harm from it. But I make no claim to authority. I only have three or four books about the recorder.
I think the key is not to oil too frequently, whatever else you do.
Hope nobody here flames me, but I’ve actually used Ballistol on a whistle. Or, more accurately, hubby has. Guess he figures what’s good enough for his guns…
Mom tip: Dollar Tree (the everything’s $1 store) sells worthless plastic recorders, but, packaged with those pieces of junk is a little doohicky that would work for cleaning out a whistle, if you stuck a strip of old cotton t-shirt in it. I actually bought one for the doohicky. Doubt you’d find a cheaper one anywhere else.
Marie, as you can tell, the subject of oiling is one that sometimes gets a bit off track. To asnwer your question:
Don’t oil a metal whistle. It makes a mess and serves no purpose.
The liquid that collects isn’t spit, it’s condensed moisture from your breath.
Warm up your whistle before playing to reduce the amount of condensation.
Don’t fling the whistle. Cover the window (the square opening) with your finger and blow to clear the moisture.
Go to any music store or Internet dealer and buy a cleaning rod. Put a bit of soft cloth in the slot and wipe out the moisture when it’s too excessive. (BTW, Mocking bird’s dollar store recorder tip is pretty cool. Never thought of that!)
If your whistle gets gross wash it in the sink and let it dry. They’re not dishwasher safe.
If you get a wooden whistle write back and we’ll worry about it then.
If you want your brass whistles to have that nice patina, (I’m ambivalent about this) just rinse the outside and don’t scrub it or you will remove some of this.
) I use Nevr Dull, then wash them thoroughly as above since it contains chemicals. I also use Renaissance Wax on the brass whistles, or whistle parts, that I want to remain shiny. Some, I let the patina develop. It is a grand experiment for me whether to polish or not to polish, I argue with myself about it all the time. 
Oops, maybe not.
) it’s from the late 60’s
