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You’re not alone on this one, 'berry. I’ll bet you couldn’t swing a low D around here w/o hitting any number of repentant tweakers. 
Myself, included.
If you have an old guitar pick lying around somewhere, you could try the blade-replacement tweak. I couldn’t find the page on the website that had the details, but I’m sure if you search the archives or ask around, you can find clear instructions. I think it was either Jim Peeples or Walden who explained this “frankenwhistle” tweak first, but my brain is dead right now, so I can’t remember..
Cranberry,
If you promise not to marry me , I’ll help you out on this.
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Get yourself a piece of stiff plastic. I use Jim Dunlop Tortex red (or orange) guitar pics, Jerry Freedman uses plastic drink bottle plastic.
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Take an exacto knife (sharp, pointy penknife) and first mark exactly to where the blade reaches by putting two little nicks on the side of the windway (not strictly necessary but comforting the first time you performe bladectomy). Then cut back the blade of your ruined Walton.
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Cut a piece of the stiff plastic to fit the windway. This will replace the blade. Using a nailfile or very fine sandpaper, bevel the edge.
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Take a tiny (tiny) amount of Blu Tack, mounting putty, sticky tack whatever you call it and put it on the remaining part of the blade. Then place the pastic there, replacing the whistles blade.
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Test. Move your new blade until your whistle plays well through both octaves, is strong on the low notes etc etc.
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When you’ve got the right position, glue the new blade in place. Jerry Freedman uses double-adhesive tape, I use superglue.
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Whistle.
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Actually, I use double-faced tape instead of sticky tac under the blade lamination. I use superglue the same way Bloo does.
Best wishes,
Jerry
This has worked for me in the past… Try using something along the lines of a soft cloth with a dab of brasso (yes it will work on plastic) … make sure it’s soaked into the cloth I mean. basically make sure the blade is very smooth, and that the blade is not perfectly sharp. Be sure to have a damp clean piece of cloth handy and wipe it clean quickly. and of course wipe it dry.
If it has played fine all this time and has just suddenly started playing both octaves at once, I am assuming it has sort of a reverberating sound? If so, I was wondering if you might give a little more detail, because I do think there might be another fix and an easy one at that, but it would be pointless to go into detail if it’s not the case…
If you blow softly enough, even if it’s barely audible, will it stay in the lower octave? If so, Can you blow hard enough, even if it goes out of tune, and want’s to break into the upper octave, to keep it from trying to reverb with the lower?
Take care,
John
I have found that the nail buffers will smooth out sandpaper problems nicely. The ones with a red and white abrasive on one side and a gray or black buffer on the other side are what I am talking about. You will have to trim it to be narrow enough to fit. Lots of Luck.
Ron
If this has already been mentioned or you have already done this then my apologies…
make sure to really really really really really clean the windway thoroughly, especially where the air “comes out” into the window.
Take care,
John
I’m with John and Ron at this stage. It’s probably still too early in the troubleshooting process to do a blade transplant.
When I’m at this stage, I use a strip of #350 or #400 (that’s extremely fine by most people’s standards) sandpaper. At that level of fineness, it will be the grey or black kind.
I cut a strip narrow enough to fit into the window of the mouthpiece. Then I thread the strip through the window and out the tube end of the mouthpiece (mouthpiece has been removed from tube), with the abrasive side towards the blade. Then I pull the sandpaper back and forth against the blade edge to slightly dull it and smooth out any imperfections. (It takes both hands, with the mouthpiece balanced against my stomach.)
After doing that, I very gently scrape (scrape is too strong a word, because I just barely touch it) the top and bottom of the windcutter blade edge with the edge of an exacto knife, to take off any crumbs or rag edge that may be left on the windcutter blade from the sanding.
Remember, as a general rule, making the windcutter blade duller strengthens the lower register and weakens the upper, while making the windcutter blade sharper will do the opposite. And anything you do to remove irregularities in any part of the whistle will help clean up the voice.
Best wishes,
Jerry
P.S. I haven’t used nail buffers, but they sound well suited for this kind of work. Note to self: Must remember to pick up some nail buffers.
Hey Cranberry!
What whistles are you waiting for??
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Cranberry,
If you only ran the sandpaper on the blade once, assuming that you didn’t sand back and forth aggressively, you probably didn’t hurt the whistle. To really mess it up, you would have to sand enough to actually shorten the blade. Without seeing it, I can’t know for sure, but it sounds like you’re still in fine tuning territory.
I would recommend that you carefully dull slightly and clean up the blade edge using the method in my previous post in this thread. If that means you have to get some #350 or #400 sandpaper first, I would wait until you have that sandpaper, rather than use something coarser.
Best wishes,
Jerry
Cranberry,
I had a very similar experience with a red-top Generation D.
After trying to tweak the blade by lightly sanding (and ruining the fipple) I am convinced that it is a miracle that that any of the mass produced ones work at all.
By the way, your Avatar has always attracted my attention; I just had to see what it looked like “in the positive” so I flipped it. I was surprised.
Billbo
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I think that the playing characteristics of the whistle is very dependent on the physics of how the blade splits the air column.
I believe very minor differences in the blade leading edge can radically change how a whistle “works” and “sounds”. I assume that is why we hear that you need to try out Generations (for instance) to find one that is “good”; it is just minor dimensional differences in the blade due to manufacturing tolerances.
In regard to your avatar, I am sorry that I caused you to change it; I didn’t mean to do that. I thought it was neat; was that you in the picture?
Bill
This question has come up before.
The answer someone gave is that there are several orders of magnitude more recorders manufactured than pennywhistles, so the issues involved in mass producing them have gotten more attention.
Also, it occurs to me that more research and development has gone into recorders over several centuries, and that work may have benefitted current manufacturers trying to produce a consistent product.
Best wishes,
Jerry