Has anyone here tried making whistles out of eldertree wood?
Are they worth the effort, as marginal as it might be?
According to a book I found in the University of Idaho library on making traditional European musical instruments, whistles were made from elderberry tree wood, but whistle players were seen as lazy, as they only seemed to have time to make and play whistles. As you have probably noticed, the stems have a core of pith that is easy to remove, making them a good choice for easy to make whistles. The pith is the core of the first year’s growth of that twig. In subsequent years, it adds yearly growth rings like most other trees.