Would you trust measuring pipes from a museum, and use the dimensions to make a set of pipes.
DDS.
Hi Davy, if it´s a suggestion you know I would do anything you say about pipes!!
There are some nice sets in museums and private collections which will work for you, but be aware that there are many which are non starters, and not what they seem.
I have found over the last twenty years or so that a lot of them are given or sent there because of this reason, they may give useful info on how certain things are made up and look, but be careful or you could be manufacturing into your pipes a fault or two.
With today,s modern tuning methods, I would much rather buy a new set of pipes that is going to work better and play properly.
One modern maker who has given us all some magnificent examples of craftsmanship to work from, is non other than my mentor Peter Hunter, who is also highly regarded by many top/professional pipers today and in the past.
DDS.
How easy is it to get into museums to copy pipes ,Im sure they dont just let in anyone to handle pipes that may be worth alot of money.
Would it not be better to copy a working set of pipes that you know are good???
I wonder which is the most copied set of pipes??
RORY
Some routes which have a following are:
Kenna to Coyne to Hunter to Stepehnson to Nakatsui etc.
Another is the same as above to Whoof to Kennedy etc.
Also Rowesome to Maglaughlin to Crossin etc.
Can anyone think of any other routes to which or whose pipes may or not be the most coppied.
Take all these makers and you wil see similar traights amongst them all
to which set of pipes.
DDS.
And Nakatsui got a Hunter chanter from me.
The circle is unbroken 
How is Makoto coming along?
I had some of his reeds when I bought one of your chanters from him.
His attention to detail on even small things like winding the hemp was perfect.
Mukade
Makoto is doing better than I ever imagined, considering he has never done any hand work before arriving here in the UK, he has surpassed all expectations and I am positive he will go on to make some really nice instruments when he get back to Tokyo, and as you say he leaves no stone unturned when it comes to attention to detail, it has been a real pleasure teaching him what I know.
DDS.
I thought Geoff Wooff based his work on the Harrington set he acquired and restored in Australia.
I thought Geoff Wooff based his work on the Harrington set he acquired and restored in Australia.[/quote]
Maybe that should read, Reed to Harington to Wooff to Kennedy I think some of the Northumbrian ashetics came out in Harrington’s wares, when he was working in the North East part of England.
I have just spoken to Peter and he has asked me to put a few words of thanks towards two men that had a huge influence on his early pipe making career.
The first is no other than Ted Colgan a man who Peter says has an unexhaustable knowledge of all things uilleann, without this mans help Peter would never have been exposed to the great works of Coyne, Kenna and Egan and how things should be.
Second is the great late Breandan Breathnach.
These two men also influenced many other pipers and makers alike.
DDS
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Did you say you use a CNC lathe ???
RORY
I may be showing my ignorance here, but wouldn’t you have to get access enough to do more than just measure the outside? Ie examine the bores, X-rays and such? Violin makers often get to examine historical instruments in museums and usually do more than take measurements. They get to X-ray, tap plates etc. Are any museums doing the same for pipe makers?
[quote=“rorybbellows”]Did you say you use a CNC lathe ???
RORY[/quote]
If your asking me this question, No I don’t, but I have access to one if I want, but I do not make the amount require to pay for the setting up costs of CNC, it only takes an hour to make a student chanter by hand that’s without keys mounts and another hour to finish off reeding and making the brass cap for one.
Key mounted versions take a little longer with a matching wooden top hence the bigger price.
The CNC outfit which our local violin maker uses has a four axis set up, it can turn all the outside dimensions, take off the waste for key mounts then drill the tone holes in 15 mins, we have already got the program for doing everything, the bore and reed socket are first done by hand before slotting it into the machine.
Somebody one day might get things done via CNC, but it takes real investment to do this, a full set or sets could be made for around a thousand pounds if everything was CNC’d and laser cut, but in the present climate, its just never going to happen.
One thing that will slow down production is getting enough reeds made fast enough, the Uilleann world is not standardised like the GHB arena with their ready made reeds and CNC made parts, but who knows someone right now might be working on this.
DDS.
Xrays are used regulary in the stringed instrument field, because they cannot take most of them apart to examine them, say like a Strad violin, or have very complex assemblies.
Xraying uilleann pipes is not needed because 95% is measurable without distructive means.
I still would not fully trust a set from a museum to make another copy from, because some are so badly warped and dehydradted that its almost impossible to get a very acurate reading of what it was like before, in the case that the old set say by Coyne which was never altered then that’s all and well, I can tell you that not many have been untouched.
The work involved in rehydrating and old set and making the sometimes very complex repairs to it would be way too expensive a hobby to take on, and sometimes much more than the set is actually worth, of course a pipe maker could do this for himself as Geoof Woofe did with his old Harrington set and Peter Hunter with his 1765 Egan set.
You would be much better off getting a modern set that has been made as the old makers did things, Ie hand rolled etc but with the modern tuning skills now available to everybody, a tip I have often heard is, if the old set is in tip top condition, you can be sure that it has never been played, because it never worked properly in the first place and an old set that has been through the mill, and is about worn out was loved and played to death because it was really good.
Untill such a day that the good/old/untouched ones that are left, the ones from private collection come to the surface, we will all have to make do with what some of the more senoir makers still alive today have brough to us, you know the makers who had acsess to the best of what has been before..
DDS.