Are there any makers out there who could help me with a few technical questions on making a wooden whistle? I’ve put in a lot of time and effort figuring out how to do it, but I’m learning the hard way and asking someone who already does it could save me a lot of blood, sweat & tears.
My main question concerns the bore; what sort of profile should one use for a conical bore on a D whistle? Secondly, what’s the best method of making a reamer, considering I don’t have a metal working lathe? Thirdly, does one glue the block (fipple?) in place, or is it just a tight fit, as with recorders? If so, presumably it’s necessary to ensure it’s been really dried out before shoving it in, or it’ll tend to work its way loose (as seems to be happening with mine)? And finally, when you make a tunable wooden whistle, which is inevitably reasonably thick-walled, whenever the mouthpiece is not fully pushed on to the tuning slide, the second octave becomes flatter in relation to the first; is this always a problem, or is it alleviated with a conical bore?
As for the bore - if you want to go the conical route, I would think you need to make a reamer yourself. You can chack out the flutemakers group on Yahoo and search for hints on making reamers. It is posible to fashion the taper from hardwood and then grind down a hacksaw blade or jointer blade to do the cutting. But you could also use a cylindrical bore and get good results. Many makers, myself included, use a gundrill for that. Other options would work but perhaps less well.
As for the fipple, it’s your call and depends on your design. You can glue it in, you can pin it or whatever you think works.
As for the joint, you want to minimize the disruption to the bore where the tubes join to minimze the effects on tuning. That’s why you see many whistles with slides made from thin walled brass tubing. Where you place it in the bore matters too if your walls are thicker. You might want to google on “bore expansions” to help decide where to place your joint.
Regardless of the bore configuration - you might want to look into acquiring a metal-working lathe - you will find most woodworking lathes will have issues with accuracy dealing with the small tollerances in a whistle. For efficiency, it’s probably an idea to have 2 lathes.
For tips on reamers - have a look at Terry McGee’s website.
Best of luck with your project!
(edited to add: bore topology can be explored with a little blob of plasticine on the end of a fine guitar string )
Thanks for all your help. I’ve been thinking over your answers and have just completed a whistle in F (it was supposed to be in D, but my calculations went funny and it ended up sharp, so I took it up to F).
I used a cylindrical bore, and don’t have any tuning problems between octaves, but it’s not really tunable as pulling the mouthpiece back on the tuning slide sends the tuning haywire. Next time I’ll try inserting a length of brass/silver tubing as a tuning slide.
It has a beautiful clear sound: in terms of tone, clarity and responsiveness in the lower register it far outshines the (early model) Sweetheart D whistle I have. The single (but very big) problem I have with this instrument is the top half of the upper register: the top four notes require massive blowing power and are virtually impossible to produce. I built a new fipple thinking that may be the problem, but it hasn’t solved it. It occurred to me that the problem may lie in the finger holes. In order to get it in tune they ended up much larger than normal - some as much as 9mm - and even though that’s made it an instrument with a lot of volume, could it be that it’s taking too much blowing power as a result and therefore not able to produce the high notes?
Way to go! I’ll bet you can’t make just one though.
When you do add the tuning tube, try to keep the inside diameter of the tube the same as the bore diameter. That way you can stick to you calculations. If you use a narrower tube, say one whose outside diameter matches the bore diameter, you will need to revisit your tuning.
It’s hard to say what the cause of your issues with the upper half of the second octave may be but one guess is that the bore to length ratio may be off. Since you started out boring the tube to be a D whistle and then shortened the tube to make an F whistle, that ratio may not support the higher F whistle range. But that’s a guess not knowing any of your whistle’s dimensions. Other factors may apply as well.
There’s only one thing to do. Make more whistles! Keep us posted on how you progress.
Bore angle: The angle of the conical bore sets/determines the “flip point” between registers (ref: Arthur H. Benade). Each instrument must be “tuned” by calculation according to specific borelength or the registers will be out of tune with each other.
Fipple plug: I suggest that you “Pin” the plug (sideways) with a soft aluminum or brass pin. Insert it loose. tap it softly with a ballpeen hammer to set it, and then sand the ends smooth with a dremel tool. It is easy to push this pin out for repair/cleaning etc.
Tuning slide: A simple tuning slide can be made from thin brass tube, similar to the tube used for Generation whistles. Place a 2" piece that fits snuggly within the bore at a point between the top tonehole and the voiceing window. Glue the top half to the headjoint to secure it.
(When you create a space with greater cubic volume within the whistle, especially near the voiceing/generator, the upper registers will go flat. This is also true for deep toneholes.)
Required reading:
Arthur H. Benade’s book “Horns,Strings and Harmony”(acoustics/google it)
Trevor Robinson’s book, “The Amateur Wind Instrument Maker”… http://www.shakuhachi.com/CM-Robinson.html
…has many woodwind plans for the beginner and half a chapter on making “home-made” conical bore reamers.
You can find many flute craft manuals (left frame) at.. http://www.shakuhachi.com/
…I suggest the books of Lew Paxton Price and Bart Hopkin.
Feadoggie, I think you’re right about not being able only to make one - this looks set to become an obsession!
Okay, with regard to the bore, it’s 12mm (more like 12.5mm after sanding smooth). Overall length is 251mm including 25mm fipple length. What do you reckon the bore should be - 10mm?
The mouthpiece was sort of loosely based on a Generation design, with an 8mm wide fipple & window, but a much longer ramp (17mm from labium). Like the Generation, the window is 5mm long, as opposed to just over 3mm on the early model Sweetheart; possibly this could present problems? Most of the recorders I’ve looked at have smaller windows too. It seems there are so many variables, it’s difficult to know where to start without resorting to trial and error, but I’ll check out those suggestions you gave, Thomas.
With regard to pinning the fipple plug, how are you supposed to remove the pin for repairs without damaging the mouthpiece? I was thinking of gluing it with hide glue, so it can be steamed loose, as is done on violins etc.
There are two options for the easy remove pin thru the head. One is to drill right thru the head and make the pin an appropriate length so it can be ‘pushed’ out from either side. The other is to use a pin with a head on it (such as a brass escutcheon pin). I’m told some fine makers use the pin method. It has the added attraction of preventing your whistle from rolling into puddles of beer.
Okay, with regard to the bore, it’s 12mm (more like 12.5mm after sanding smooth). Overall length is 251mm including 25mm fipple length. What do you reckon the bore should be - 10mm?
The length to bore ratio can vary between 20:1 to 30:1 depending on other design characteristics. You’re right at the low end of that range. 12mm is a good bore for a D whistle. A window of 8mm by 4mm works well but there is more to it than those dimensions such as windway height, windway floor to blade floor relationship, fipple shape and end bevel, etc. As you said, there are a lot of variables. Read as much as you can on the internet. The books Thomas mentioned above are good suggestions.
I’m told some fine makers use the pin method. It has the added attraction of preventing your whistle from rolling into puddles of beer.
Yes that method is SYNonomous with a certain maker - Hah! I have noticed that the pin does not always keep the whistle from rolling off the table. But it does at least make a nice rythmic ker-thump ker-thump ker-thump sound before it falls into free space. (I’m watching to make sure the Bartlett Lancewood D stays on the desk next to the keyboard).
Are there any makers out there who could help me with a few technical questions on making a wooden whistle? I’ve put in a lot of time and effort figuring out how to do it, but I’m learning the hard way and asking someone who already does it could save me a lot of blood, sweat & tears.
)
Thanks for all your help. I’ve been thinking over your answers and have just completed a whistle in F (it was supposed to be in D, but my calculations went funny and it ended up sharp, so I took it up to F).