Greetings, whistlers! I am Matt, from Pittsburgh PA USA, and I have a bit of a delicate question about which I’m hoping someone can provide enlightenment.
My daughter got me a tin whistle for Christmas, and I love it. It’s a standard issue Clarke, conical, tuned to D. This past weekend, I brought it to a social gathering, and a few fellow partygoers took their turns on it … and … OK … I’m not sure how to put this … My nephew’s girlfriend used it and … um … I now feel compelled to disinfect my whistle before I use it again. (I assure you, I had no intention of passing it around in the first place. There was alcohol involved, that’s all I’ll say.)
So I called my doctor and relayed my concerns, and he said that I could take care of the problem by submersing it in water of 140 degrees Fahrenehit (60 Celsius) for 10 minutes. My question to you, the tin whistle cognoscenti, is: Is this going to ruin my whistle? Would the fipple be irreparably warped if I took such action? And, if so, can anyone else offer me any other ideas? I am utterly distraught.
By “standard issue” Clarke, do you mean a Clark original (metal, with
a wooden fipple block), or Clarke SweeTone (plastic head)? I assume
you mean the former, but I want to make sure, lest we give you
inaccurate advice.
If it’s the original, then it shouldn’t be a big problem to boil it. The
wood might change size, but since there’s no glue, it should resume
its original size when cool and dry (you may have to squeeze the
metal sides together a bit to seal it). The Clarke original is easy to
reshape, anyway, since it’s thin metal, and they are super cheap, and
therefore easy to replace if ruined. If it were me, I’d pull the wood
block out, and boil it separate from the body, then clamp it back in
when totally cool and dry.
There are antiseptic sprays you can use. The music store near me uses one so people can try various instruments and not worry about getting germs. Here’s just one of probably many.
Steep it upside down for two days in a water tumbler of Glenmorangie Sherry wood finish. Cover with a towel to keep the vermin out. A the end of two days, during which you are encouraged to help yourself to the rest of the bottle of Glenmoragie, take the whistle out and give it a good shake. Drink the Glenmorangie and play the whistle. You will be so full of the milk of human kindness that you’ll not care that that germ-infested, pox carrier of a girlfriend with whom your nephew is currently associating put lip to it.
Note: This will happen again, although decent real whistle player should ask first.
Glad to see another Whistle Player from Pittsburgh!
You should be fine with the water on the whistle you have. If you had one of the plastic fipple models, I’d worry about it, but yours should survive quite well.
I spent $3.50 on a little bottle of mouthpiece cleanser from the local music store (same stuff they use on returned band instruments that had been rented to high school students).
A whistle just isn’t a whistle until it has been passed around ya know! Now ya got yourself an “OFFICIAL” whistle! Now if it was an Abell, Copeland, or Burke and someone did that…TOTALLY different story.
Anyways, if I need to disinfect my whistle, I usually just wave it around in the air (real fast) a few times. Does the trick everytime.
If alcohol tastes like gasoline to you, then Glenmorangie Sherry Wood Finish will at least taste like gasoline that has been aged for a decade in old sherry casks.
Very few germs survive more than 30 minutes at most from the from the host organism unless they land in another organism that can host them. Please don’t just believe me - research for yourself. Try and prove me wrong.
I doubt if your whistle is an organism. In any case 30 minutes in gentle sunlight should render it non organismic. If I was really worried, after the whistle was dry I would swill a mouthful of gin, spit out and then blow through the whistle. I am a teetotaller you see.
It’s interesting that of the few partygoers that played your whistle it’s your nephew’s girlfriend that causes you concern. Just where has this girl been?
I also have a Clarke I play sometimes and I would think that boiling water would do the job without damage to the instrument. As for disinfecting your nephew . . . I think that’s a discussion for a different site.[/quote]
