Does anyone know where I can buy...?

Whistle
1

Does anyone know where I can buy Bamboo or some kind of hollow wood good for making Penny Whistles?
Preferably places where I can buy it with an 1/2" to 3/4" inside diameter and at a relatively low price.

Thanks,
God bless
-Joshua

2

http://www.one-world-trading.com/flutes_BansuriBamboos.shtml

3

Thanks for that website. I will keep that one in mind.

Anyone got any others?

4

You might get lucky at a good garden supply store. Some carry suitably sized bamboo as garden stakes.

5

Okay thanks, I will look around.

6

Even the large home stores around me have those quite cheap.

I am turning and boring my own wooden ones. Most of the commercial wooden tubes I have seen are industrial products like mop wringers. There are some wooden blowguns still being made and sold. Bear in mind that the woods used for mop wringers and blow guns are not selected for their sonic qualities…

7

Can anyone tell me if Copper is a good building material for Penny Whistles?
I have heard that there are health hazards with it. Are they true?

8

You can judge any hazards for yourself. Copper pipe has been used as a whistle material for as long as I have been playing - and that’s a long time! Several makers have done very nice work with copper. Copper has been used as water delivery pipe for how long? So has CPVC. My first DIY whistles were made from copper. I don’t prefer to work with copper nowadays but that is just a personal bias. You can find health concerns over PVC/CPVC and aluminum as well. Brass just tastes nasty. What about those plastics we use? You can be concerned over the toxicity of many varieties of exotic wood used for whistles as well. Or not. Do your research on materials and make your own decisions.

Feadoggie

9

Copper, PVC and aluminum are probably the finest materials that never lived for whistle making. But I have my bias also and only interject it because your choice of materials in your original post suggests a similar perspective. I think making music is breathing life into the instruments, so you want a material that supports (and even once experienced) life. I want to make **wood**winds.