Ok, I have a rather large question to ask.
Actually several. First of all, besides the actual lathe, what does one require as far as ttols go to make a wood whistle. I know about the reamer, but can’t make one myself, so is there a place you can buy them?
What kinds of files/cutting tools are needed to shape the bore?
What kinds of woods are best ( ie most practicable, obtainable and cheap!)
Thanks
Nico
I would highly recommend you contacting Glenn Schultz.
Glenn is a great guy, and he is happy to share information on whistle making.
Who better to learn from than a master of the craft?
Hi Nico
I agree with Raindog above, find someone in your area that turns wood, even before you start wanting to make whistles.
If you do a search on Google by entering “beginning wood-turning” you will find 177,000 sites. You could limit this by including “Ontario” in the search phrase.
It is best to get hands on experience. I have thought for several years of making a bodhran sticks, not as complicated and inimate as whistle making, but the practicallity of it is the same.
There are also quite a few summer courses availabe on the net, that might interest you as a beginner. Or do as JessieK (see Flute forum post "Going to visit Dave Copley) has done and Raindog advises.
Mark
Gee I hate that! Just as I hit the submit button to your posting, I remembered that in Fergus there is fine harp maker named Timothy, he might have a connection for you.
You will find contact information for Timothy at the bottom of his home page.
http://www.timothyharps.ca/timothyharpsmain.html
Mark
You should be able to get enough information to get started from the book “The Amateur Wind Instrument Maker” by Trevor Robinson, which is available from amazon.com. The book has a lot of information on making recorders, which would apply directly to making a wooden whistle. There is also good information on tools required, and details on how to make tapered reamers. If you make a straight bore whistle, you should not need special reamers. Good luck!!
[ This Message was edited by: dcopley on 2001-09-09 08:06 ]
I’ve made a couple of native american style flutes in wood, though not on the lathe. See if there is a Woodcraft store near you ( http://www.woodcraft.com ). Also, talk to Terry of Kokopelli Flutes, he uses the lathe for his flutes. You can say Beth in NY sent you, if he remembers me =)
There have been many good suggestions given already. This subject has been debated on other sites as well. Here are some more options I would like to suggest.
1)Consider making the whistle “blank” in 2 halves. Use a Router to cut 2 half-grooves in each blank half and then “glue up” the halves with epoxy. Use Shell Reamers or sanding rasps to finish the inner bore to correct diameter. Finish the outer diameter on a lathe or a Router table using a 1/4 round bit on all 4 corners for a cylindrical finished instrument. Maybe leave the outer surface square for easy holding and ease of voicing and tonehole boring.
2)Bore in short body segments(less than 8 inches)and use tennon joints like Recorders. This needs only standard size drill bits or you could get a “Lamp Auger” bit(self centering).
Hope this has helped. Take a look at this site for some more insight.
Gary](http://members.iinet.net.au/~nickl/tools.html%22%3EGary) Cook’s Tools for Recorder Making
[ This Message was edited by: Thomas-Hastay on 2001-09-10 20:19 ]
Hey, cool ideas there Thomas-Hastay. If I could add just a bit too that. The kind of epoxy you need for woodworking is slow-setting woodworker’s epoxy (~30 minute open time) that boatbuilders and furniture makers use; its different than the “5 minute” epoxy that you find in most hardware stores - Lee Valley ( http://www.leevalley.com) sells it in various quantities if you have trouble finding it locally.
One of the methods that Thomas mentioned about using brass tubing inside is commonly used in making small pens, these pen wood pieces could be used with the brass to make high-D whistles.
If go the traditional route, be sure to read up on treating the wood. There are many ways to do this.
I’ve got those pen tubes, you’re talking VERY small. The standard size is roughly 1/4" diameter and just over 2 inches long. You can get brass tubes at any woodworking shop that sells turning materials, such as http://www.woodcraft.com and http://www.pennstateind.com (I don’t recommend the latter, poor customer service)
Routing out the two halves is how the larger native american flutes are commonly made. I don’t know how the acoustics would change if the interior was lined with brass; it would be an interesting experiment.
I’m not sure what a wood whistle with brass linning would sound like. I will say though, that I have built some whistles that have a wood shroud over the copper fipple and it has improved sound tremendously - and I like the way it looks.
Re. Pen Blanks, I bought some recently (I make Pens also) from Packard Woodworking online and was very happy with the materials, the place you mentioned, Pen State Ind., they are also a bit expensive for wood supplies.
You would need sometime wider than the average pen blank size (maybe jumbo pen size) and depending on the whistle design, use two pen blanks for try to find something longer in length.
There is a guy in washington/oregon whose ebay id is robertgeeviolins, he sells lots of wood for pens and is extremely nice. I’ve bought from him twice. I’m sure he could sell you whatever size you needed.
Pen blanks are usually about 5/8" square, which is cutting it too close for the bore of a D whistle ( typically 1/2"). Also, they are often only about 4-5" long. I make Ds, and the head is about 4.5", body 7", so even 2 pen blanks is too short. Grain won’t match either.
Check out http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com
Lots of appropriate stuff, pretty good prices.
I forgot to mention on my previous post, that a 1X1X12" piece is good for a D whistle, with not much to spare. You can buy a 2X2X12 and bandsaw it into 4 1x1s too
Thanks for the tip on epoxy Gary.
avanutria mentioned that pen blank brass tubes are too small for whistles. These tubes are small,but if you use the French Flageolet design,sometimes called a “bird whistle”,you can make quiet sweet sounding and high pitched whistles.
The trick is in small voicings and toneholes and by placing the center hole of each set of three on the dorsal(back)side to then be used as thumbholes. This allows close spaced toneholes to be seperated on two sides so no “finger bunching” occurs.
Bagpipers take note:
Most bagpipes and reedpipes have bores of between 4mm and 11mm,perfect for pen blank sizes of brass tubing. I’ve made an obscure type of pipe called a “Scottish Stock and Horn” in this fashion. It has 2 internal drones and one melody pipe all-in-one-tube.
The Idea came from a website plan for a PVC smallpipe with brass tubing as an inner bore and PVC as an outer shell with resin epoxy as a filler between. Many “Sackbutts” and other horns use 2 piece construction as well and are bound with glue and then leather, shrunk to fit,as an outer lining.
Even crude gouges used to cut grooves in each half of a blank could be used if the inner bore is to be lined with brass tubing so expensive tools are not needed. An advanced method of this has been perfected by Monty Levenson of Tai Hei Shakuhachi fame.
Shakuhachi.com</a](http://shakuhachi.com/">Shakuhachi.com</a)>
T. Hastay.
[ This Message was edited by: Thomas-Hastay on 2001-09-13 15:01 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Thomas-Hastay on 2001-09-13 15:03 ]
Ok I am a bit confused!
T-H: what exactly do you mean by blanks? Are you saying that I should take the wood, cut it in half and then in the middle of each piece, rout a groove, and then glue the wood back together?
What about the structural integrity?
And how does one drill the the holes for it?
to everyone/anyone
If I use a reamer, and a drill, is there anywhere I can buy reamers? (I would otherwise need a metal lathe, and I can’t afford that too! Might as well just buy a wood whistle from Mr. Shultz!)
Thanks a lot for all the input!
And just so I can clarify my confusion, let me state that I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about woodworking, besides what a reamer and a lathe is, I know NONE of the tools!!
Nico
Nico
It is not required to split a “blank”(Wood stick bored and prepared for the lathe before any holes are drilled). The exterior of a blank can be shaped with a simple plane or even with a whittling knife before placing it on the lathe. If you dont have the money for a lathe, you can make a simple “Spring Pole Lathe” from a dry wood pole,some rope,scrap lumber(pallets)and 2 large nails used as centers.(I posted a site for plans below if anyone is interested).
Polyester Epoxy, when bonded to wood, is stronger than the wood itself. For structural integrity,it is best to place the seam at the sides of the whistle so the toneholes and voicing remain seperate from this seam. If the 2 halves of the whistle “blank” are sanded at the seam properly,the seam will be invisible.
Brass and Copper are fairly soft metals and most drill bits made for woodwork will not be harmed by drilling through these materials.Both of these metals are naturaly anti-bacterial and are easy to polish and care for. Wood,on the other hand,is porous and can hold bacteria for extended periods within the cell structure.
Spring](http://www.historicgames.com/lathes/springpole.html%22%3ESpring) Pole Lathe Site
T.H.
[ This Message was edited by: Thomas-Hastay on 2001-09-14 14:48 ]
[ This Message was edited by: Thomas-Hastay on 2001-09-14 14:50 ]
Thomas-Hastay is quite correct when he says that the epoxy glue is stronger than the wood itself. A reasonably good epoxy joint will have a shear strength of about 15,000 psi whereas the hardwood itself is only about 2,000 to 4,000 psi. Epoxy is also impervious to water, sticks to almost anything (like metals and glass), and is slightly flexible so it is much less to fracture under stress like traditional woodworkers glues. There is no worry that your epoxied-glued whistle will fall apart unless you do a truly shoddy job 
Respectfully, I must disagree with the comment “Both of these metals are naturaly anti-bacterial and are easy to polish and care for. Wood,on the other hand,is porous and can hold bacteria for extended periods within the cell structure.” Traditionally we have thought that smoother, non-organic surfaces such as plastic or metal wood be more hygenic than a porous, organic surface like wood but this is not always the case In fact, this very topic is currently being heavily studied and debated by food safety researchers. Some recent studies have shown conclusively that in many cases the natural toxicity of common hardwoods is enough to kill bacteria living on wood surfaces if they are washed thoroughly and allowed to air dry. But, most studies have compared wood with plastics and have not considered metals. Of course, brass and copper are much more toxic than most common hardwoods so they may very well be more hygenic than wood but, in any case, wood surfaces (if cleaned regularily) are not the “bacteria breeding grounds” we once though they were 
I concede your points on the antibacterial properties of the resins found in wood. Cedar, in particular,is used for woodwinds for this reason as well as its many other atributes,such as pleasant taste,smell,looks,lightness and the acoustic properties of its cell structure.
It was not my intention to exclude wood as an archaic medium. I only wished to point out some atributes of the ease of construction and maintenance of using brass and copper for the amateur builder with few tools at their disposal.
Thank you for your opinion. An open mind accepts more insight.
Thomas Hastay.
Just a quick note about epoxies and woods. Many exotic woods are fairly resinous and epoxy has a real tough time sticking to them. Some formulas of poxy will handle it better than others. Don’t go cheap on the glue! Also, epoxy will break down over time and this should be kept in mind. You have several years, but the glue bond can weaken. Just something to be aware of.
I make knives and I have a lot of experience sticking wood and metal together. Had a purpleheart handle fall off of a knife once. That was the last time I looked for a “bargain” on the epoxy! I like Devcon, especially thier industrial-grade formulas. Other name-brands may be just as good. Here, name does matter.
-Patrick