Hi, I am a new member and I think this site/these forums are fantastic! So much experience and information available.
Not long ago something made me think “Why don’t I have a whistle? I used to play one when I was little, I wonder what happened to it.” - so a bit of research later (thanks to this site) I bought a D Feadog and attempted to buy a Clarke Sweetone. I liked the tone of both well enough, and wanted to compare cylindrical/conical. However the seller sent me a Clarke Classic; while it sounds lovely and I find it super easy to control what register I’m in, I get dizzy very quickly trying to play it. I couldn’t bring myself to return it and swap, I love the smell of the wooden stopper and the dorky gold diamonds remind me of how uncool playing a clarinet was, back when I still played at school. So I bought one of Jerry Freedman’s tweaked Sweetones hoping for a less athletic experience, more on this later. I’m thinking about buying an ABS whistle in A or making one of the homebrew PVC ones too - whistle obsessive acquisition here I come!
I spent some time with my parents today, and ended up hanging around in the shed with my dad helping him with his car (and checking if he had any PVC on hand) when it came up that he still had the old whistle I used to play with when I was young. He said it used to belong to his uncle, and he’d taken it off us kids when he noticed the coating peeling off the fipple plug and that the plug was made of lead! He said I could have it if I wanted and of course I said yes - I probably would never have played music at all if not for messing around with this whistle and learning to play by ear. And maybe I could have been a genius if not for the lead poisoning too 
- the whistle was replaced by a nice plastic yamaha recorder (which just wasn’t the same) and at some point that led to clarinet which eventually led to bass clarinet - and then when I hit University I pretty much stopped playing anything at all. I’ve been slowly getting back into it, a while ago experimenting with ocarinas and early music.
I was wondering if anyone knew anything about Uncle Hedley’s old whistle (Dad always called it a flageolet). I have no idea how old it is, or where it was made, although I am in Australia I don’t know if whistles were manufactured here. I uploaded some pictures to a gallery rather than clog up the forum with them.
http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/10595844/1/Hedley’s%20Whistle?h=1a38d4
It’s in fairly bad condition in places, a few dings here and there and it looks like the fipple may have been slammed in a drawer or door at some point. It’s a very solid sounding tube, it has a real clang to it, like a segment of a tent pole or something serious and utilitarian. I gently cleaned some of the muck out of the windway and it still plays, although it sounds very meek and plaintive, I can get both registers out with a bit of effort. I think it sounds sharper than my other C whistle too. I would love to get this whistle in shape and non-toxic to play, what do you think my chances are? Can the lead be gouged/melted out and a wooden stopper put in?
Anyway after seeing Jerry’s tweaks on the Sweetone, I thought I’d try something similar on the Feadog because it really didn’t like switching to the upper register. A few carefully wadded blobs of putty later and the Feadog is fantastic to play. I can’t say the same for the Sweetone though! It does require a little more breath than the Feadog, but its managable. I do think it sounds better/nicer, but I still have problems in that upper register particularly starting from the G. It just seems like I have to tongue and blast the air excessively, or pinch my mouth up weird and even then I really can’t get a high A or B at all. But I have no idea if my technique is bad or posture or what. I’m still very new at serious whistling and I know I shouldn’t expect the Sweetone to play exactly the same as the Feadog. Oh, and I almost forgot, the Sweetone is a LOT flatter than the Feadog, to the point that I can’t really play along with anything. Should I be able to tune a tweaked Sweetone?
Hope this post isn’t too long winded! Nice to meet you all.