I have a Feadog D with the plastic mouthpiece, and recently bought a Clarke’s D with the wooden fipple. But the wood is rough and irritates my lower lip - I can only play it for a few minutes. Can these things be sanded or something to smooth them? I don’t play it at all because of this problem. (And for those “oldtimers” who are irritated at “newbie” questions - yes, I ran a search and didn’t find anything about this. Sorry if it’s a repeat. I certainly don’t want to get sniped at on this board.)
well I dont know if your supposed to or not…I am a newbie too. But I had the same problem with my clark. I took some VERY VERY fine sand paper (made for wet sanding finishes) and LIGHTLY sanded the edge smoother. Personally I think you have to defend against lip splinters.
When you’re done sanding (or using fine grade steel wool), try rubbing in some beeswax. Chapstick will do in a pinch. Repeat the application when it starts feeling rough or dry again.
A trick I’ve used with mine is to dip the fipple end of the whistle in mineral oil, let it soak for a while, then stand it in a corner on a paper towel to drain. Mineral oil is what is used to condition maple butcher blocks, and if the wood of the fipple isn’t maple it’s similar. The oil will keep the grain of the wood from raising because of the moisture on your lips and in your breath. Because it penetrates the wood, it helps keep the fipple from changing dimension with changing humidity and working loose. I found that my Clarke played a little better when I had oiled it, because the method also treats the wood side of the windway.
Just what we needed…another abrasive question!
Nice thing about the Clarke is that they can stand the abuse, and if they can’t they’re awful cheap to replace. My tweaked Clarke (throroughly abused by Thom) is my favourite whistle. Have fun!
Jef
I just painted my Clarke wooden fipple with a coat of clear fingernail polish.
Craig
(Is that a pennywhistle in yer pocket or are ya just happy to see me?)
After lightly sanding the wood fipple, either the nailpolish or mineral oil trick ought to work just fine. Polyurethane clear wood finish would be good too. One caution if you choose oil would be to NOT get any into the actual windway. This will cause formation of little water droplets from your condensed breath which will clog the whistle a lot.
When I got my first clarke, I would play for hours and hours, and would get the same lip irritation. I think part of it is the roughness of the wood, but I think part of it is the fact that it’s a softer wood, that hasn’t been oiled. It would draw moisture from my lip, for sure, and after one long practice, my lip actually STUCK to the whistle (like a tongue to cold metal!).
I think the beeswax/chapstick/mineral oil suggestions are probably going to be a really good bet.
Greg
You could always use a couple of coats of nail polish like I do witht the lead plugs on my antique whistles. If applied liberally it would also seal the gap around the fipple plug and probably cut down on the annoying breath hiss I always get from this type of whistle.
Thom Larson of the Whistle Shop sells a pre-tweaked Clarke on which he’s already reshaped, sanded and sealed the fipple plug -you can actually get a feel for it by reading the description on his site.
On 2002-03-16 07:45, brewerpaul wrote:
One caution if you choose oil would be to NOT get any into the actual windway. This will cause formation of little water droplets from your condensed breath which will clog the whistle a lot.
I understand your concern, and with other whistles that can be a serious problem, but I’ve never experienced it with my Clarke even though I treat the fipple by dipping that whole end of it in the oil. Perhaps this is because the windway is so large by whistle standards.
Thanks for the “plug” Chuck!
One note - I don't seal the fipple plug on the Tweeked Clarkes. In my opinion, it's really not necessary when the plug has been fine-sanded. As mentioned in previous posts, if you do want it sealed, polyurethane or clear fingernail polish would probably be the way to go.
On 2002-03-16 02:14, Jeferson wrote:
Just what we needed…another abrasive question!
Ouch, that joke goes against the grain. 
Just what we needed…another abrasive question!
Ouch, that joke goes against the grain. >
Wood it be so…
When you are done with the light sanding, try applying a liberal layer of plain old chapstick to the outer surface of the wedge. A few applications should do the trick. Mmmmmm!! Good and Good For Ya!!
Tom D.
Okay…does a a “tweaked” clark improve the tuning? I LOVE the breathy sweet sound of my plain ole clark…its just a problem because I havent been able to find one that is in tune. AND…where can you FIND a “tweaked” clark?
Here’s the address for the “Tweeked” Clarke whistles - he’s a great guy, even if ya gotta wonder about his spelling:
http://www.thewhistleshop.com/catalog/whistles/inexpensive/Clarke/Tweeked/tweeked.htm
Dale,
This doesn’t count against Thom’s limit - he didn’t post it, I did.
I almost hate to admit this after all this wonderful advice, but the breathy hiss really irritated me (as I know it does others). So after sanding and putting nail polish on the fipple, which really helped, I decided to…well, let’s not go into that. I did a little tweaking of my own and now the Clarke is singing the blues in the trashcan! Good thing it was cheap - and my least favorite whistle. And I got two Waltons to replace it! Thanks for all your great advice.
Susan
[ This Message was edited by: susnfx on 2002-03-18 20:22 ]
It tried this tweak myself on a clark. It ended up being even breathier than the original. I always thought this breathiness was due to the little gaps around the wooden plug, but those are sealed in my tweaked version. Does the breathiness have somthing to do with the the now narrower windway?
Stef