Just a thought for those who wanted to have a go at pipemaking but thought you had to have bag loads of wood turning skills ,I just watched a recording of a documentary about Kevin O,Reilly , Geoff Wooff,s apprentise and he done all his turning on a metal lathe ,with a piece of tool steel to cut the wood away and then a file to round over the key blocks with not a wood turning chisel in sight.
It can only be assumed that Geoff does it the same way .
Some probably knew this already , but I thought it would be done the old traditional way
RORY
Metal lathes are good for pipemaking 'cause you can do the woodwork and the metal work all on the one machine, plus you can make your reamers and stuff. There are two pipemakers in my neighbourhood - both UP, one uses a wood lathe, the other a metal lathe. If you want, you can even rig up a tool rest so you can use woodturning chisels with the metal lathe.
Cheers,
DavidG
My pipemaker also uses a metal lathe. I can’t remember the name of it off hand, but he carves the outside with a small cutter mounted on an arm that tracks along the bed. No chisels. Woodworking skills yes - but not necessarily the same ones we might be more familiar with when turning objects like bowls etc. on a wood turning lathe.
djm
Is Kevin O’Reilly actually making pipes?? I heard he’s not anymore.
I,d be very surprised if he has given up making pipes , as he seemed so dedicated and concerned about the future of pipemaking especially flat pipes , and what an opportunity to apprentice to Geoff Wooff
But maybe he,s very busy with his fiddle playing , maybe somebody could clarify if he really has given up making pipes
RORY
While apprenticing he made one C set which was gorgeous, he then copied a Coyne C sharp whihc looked great but it took a bit of effort finding the right reed sizes for it. Caoimhin wasn’t completely happy with his own reedmaking skills. He’s learning. At the moment he’s working on the project of documenting the pipes in the National Museum. Which should be a great aid understanding them and helping his making them.
Peter,
Could you tell us more about this National Museum project? Sounds fascinating. Or perhaps you could get Caoimhin to fill us in.
The pipes in the museum collection are going to be measured, drawings and descriptions will be made and photographs taken. That’s it.
But will they be available to the public, these drawings and measurements, or will they disappear into the curator’s files?
djm
The project needs to happen first. Those pipes have been sitting in the Dublin Museum for decades and decades without any interest or attention from anyone. On occasion, individuals have been allowed in to look at and measure up specific sets. Now, we have someone going in and doing the whole lot.
Years ago in the 1970s, BB had convinced the Museum curator to have a look and he found most of them stored in a fairly dangerous environment. Now, they are in a new location and this project should help the next step happen - have the information available to others.
While intellectually, I thinks that it’s great that this work is getting done, I strongly feel that we have enough material on the outside that is working and available to virtually do the same task. Most important is the aspect of working sets being available and what they can tell us.
I was in the museum several times during the early 1980s. All it took was phone the curator looking after them t oget access. As it was the man was curator for coins and medals and had no interest in in the musical instruments he was given the care of.
Basically we were let into the room where the pipes were with the message ‘drop the key back in the office when you’re done’. Several hours were spent taking the various sets apart, looking at the reeds in them. On the second occasion the curator left us with a first edition copy of O’Neill’s book from the museum library which looked like it had never been opened. I was sorely tempted (I wouldn’t have though, really) especially as he seemed to have forgotten the book altogether when I returned it with the key to the music room .
On that second visit we found the Vandeleur Moloney set sitting in it’s full glory on the windowsill, taking the full brunt of the july afternoon sunlight.
… lovely. :roll:
Oh, that was you! I came back that night and someone had locked the window on me, too.
Rory
There was a series of TV programs made in the 1980’s called ‘Irish Angle’ (30 min) - one of them featured Eugene Lambe and showed some of his pipemaking techniques.
I have it on video and if I can work out how to connect it to the PC may be able to put it on DVD. It is on the same tape as a series of lectures broadcast on musical instrument accoustics.
If there is anyone local to me who has the equipment to put them onto DVD PM me
Chris
