New to site and am glad to have found you! would be really grateful for some advice or steering in the right direction as regards making a rustic whistle. I don’t really know where to begin and I’m not a musician, I work with mental health patients and would love to take something simple but beyond the standard one note whistle. I have seen various ethnic varieties from all over the world but really would like to use wood (flutes or whistles to be made in situ in the woods) and fipple style whistles.
Please can you advise on the length, internal diameters that I will need to make a rudimentary instrument that works! tuning can come a lot later. We have carving knives and a variety of hand drills…
I have cut plenty of elder with no problem. I have also consumed plenty of its berries and flowers with no problem, usually fermented(!) but also the berries added to fruit pies (never the main fruit, but just added - their flavour is strong).
The measurements are really useful, thanks. As far as elder goes I think I will use another wood and drill will a long auger, then reduce the external diameter on a shaving horse, maybe sycamore, hazel or birch as they are in abundance. We have elder but I fancy getting people to do their best at drilling holes over a longer length to get some good practice for other projects we have in mind.
Do you know of any examples of single section wooden whistles that I might be able to google for inspiration?
You might also want to look at how some NAF (Native American Flute) builders route/trench a couple of blanks and then glue them together instead of boring. I am boring wood tubes on a lathe. There are whistle instructions all over the place with measurements and caluculators, but most assume you have a tube to start with. Some of the tools and techniques I use I found on turning and carving sites in articles about making wooden lamps. To make a lamp, you have to get a long straight hole to pass the cord through. Some of the specialized woodwind making apparatus is really high priced. But I got a lamp auger center on closeout at WoodCraft for under $10.
I am not sure this is particularly inspiring; I made the bore too big on this one:
That is my third attempt. It plays reasonably well in the first octave, but the upper register and that big (5/8") bore don’t get along on a short whistle (it’s a E flat; I shortened it too much after a first fipple/lip that I made too large an opening for).
