Hello, I have just join after finding this forum, I thought I might find someone who knows about something i’ve been wondering about.
Does anyone know if Hawthorn can be a suitable wood for making wind instruments?
I’ve only built string instruments before but would like to try some woodwind instruments and I have a nice bit of clear straight grain Hawthorn in fairly good quantity. It seems to have a good reputation for hardness, though I wouldn’t say mine seems too impressive in that regard.
What I don’t know is how stable/crack prone it is. It seems to dry very rapidly and splits quite fast if not sealed soon after cutting, maybe not a good indicator for stability?
Not sure what it would be like for wet-blown instruments like flutes and whistles, but it’s certainly usable for dry-blown instruments like bellows pipes. Ross Calderwood of Lochalsh Pipes, who makes Scottish smallpipes and border pipes from native woods, has used it.
I cannot comment on its use for whistle making, but I have a walking stick that I carved from hawthorn some 10-15 years ago. It has not cracked or split anywhere, and it has been used, abused and neglected in equal measures. I salvaged it from the ‘hedge’ that I cleared at the bottom of my first owned property. IIRC it was a nice wood to work with (for carving at least).
Couldn’t even find it in the Wood Database, which was surprising. Maybe because there are so many variations? Seems to be hard, moisture-resistant, and is mentioned as a substitute for boxwood for engraving.
Crataegus. If it doesn’t work out for whistles, one traditional folk tales specify it as an excellent wood for stakes to drive through the the hearts of vampires. . .
Currently black locust is the one i have been using. It is super resistant to moisture and very hard/dense/close-grained. Most people use it for fence posts or firewood due to its heat output vs. low smoke. I am only using it for the fipple plugs, so I don’t need a whole lot of it. I realize that the original query likely pertains more to the lathe-turned variety of whistle. I have tried fruitwood too and african blackwood, but never hawthorn.
