making a whistle from wood

Whistle
1

hello,

I have been missing from here for awhile. I have been buying tools for making wooden whistles, and was wondering what size bore and out side diameter people like. I don’t want to make a clunky whistle and i need to know the wall thickness before I can calculate my hole locations. All the whistles I have and like are made of brass so I really do not know how big around an average wooden whistle should be.

thanks.

2

I read somewhere that the bore should have a ratio of about 21:1. On my metal D whistles, the bore ratio is about 22.2:1 with a 1/16" (0.0625") wall. The inside diameter is 0.495"

Here are a couple of factoids for you:

  1. The length of the instrument will vary only a little with the bore size. Larger bore (within limits) gives a louder whistle. Lower pitch whistles require a larger bore to keep the length:width ratio good.
  2. The thickness of the wall is what gives a whistle the “woody” sound. If the bore is comparably smooth, (and the same fipple) then there will be very little difference in the sound of a metal whistle vs. a wood whistle. It is the wall that givens it the change in timbre.

I hope that helps.
-=chuck=-

3

Mine are .500"ID, .656"OD. Good luck, and post your results here.

4

Thanks Guys, My mill drill is on back order which gives me some time to do some drafting and planning I hope to have a design by the end of this month and a whistle by the end of april. I will post some pictures once I have some progress.

5

Don’t rush that first whistle so soon!
Once you’ve rough turned the OD and bored the whistle, I’d highly recommend waiting at least a month to let the pieces of wood equilibrate. Internal forces in the wood need to relax. The wood will expand or contract as the moisture content of the wood changes depending on the degree of moisture initially in there as well as the ambient humidity. These changes can often be pretty dramatic.
Put 'em aside for a couple of weeks, then measure them. Re-bore. Don’t resume work on them until they stay stable for a couple of weeks. You risk cracking your thin walled whistles otherwise. Been there, done that… :frowning:

6

If you are chomping at the bit try a whistle from plastic tube - you can play with hole positions and discover that it not as simple as might seem, and not waste any wood!

7

I would say have a play :astonished: try different woods and see what suits. One thing I have found useful, is to to blow the turned blank (turned and hole drilled) like a Kaval (end blown flute) to an idea of the tone and pitch (and some I have kept like that. Just remember the whistle will sound a bit higher as the distance from the sound hole to the end will be shorter.

And yes you will have some interesting results, but the more practice, the better you get.

John

8

thanks for all the advice.

I am considering using delrin for my fist prototype, I will certainly simplify things, less movement, no rings to make etc. I have made a few from PVC plumbing pipe while in Africa, some were great some were not great. (keep the children amused) Now atleast with some repeatable equiptment Hope I can get consistent results. I plan to do the boring and turning work next week which gives me several weeks before my mill comes in to be checking bores and determining if they are still moving or not. I figure I will use a d drill to drill undersize and when the wood settles I will use a reamer to finish up. hopefully I can post some pictures in a week or two.