I have asked this question before but how would Rowan(mountain ash) or Birch do for a wooden whistle?
These trees grow slowly here in the Norwegian climate making for a tight grain. Also some pines growing at a higher colder altitude, grow extremely slow and they never reach the height of trees nearer sea level. The density and weight of these pines are totally different from the commercially grown we are used to.
I don’t know about flute/whistlemaking and those woods, but white birch (hvitbjørk) is often used for woodcarving because it doesn’t chip when you turn or cut it. Also white birch is very hard.
Pine chips easily due to its grain structure, perhaps not a good choice?
Have a look at these images:
First image is surbjørk, and the second is masurbjørk.
No wonder these woods are used for bowls and knifehandles.
Many tropical woods are suitable for flutes and whistles, but the beautiful appearance of Scandinavian woods is hard to beat.
Thanks for the pictures Emtor,
Yes it’s very popular, the knife making hobby in Norway and i’ve seen and held some beautiful examples.
I think these woods would make beautiful whistles
Thanks again for the input. I think i’ll definitely have a go with the local woods. It would be interesting to hear what others think
I’ll second the beauty of Scandinavian birch. Years ago, I visited the region of Karelia in Russia. The local variety of birch had amazing grain, probably the same of similar to the varieties shown in the pictures in the previous post.
I don’t know about the fine woodworking details of these woods in reality. Getting a good, clean bore may not be easy, especially if the colorations are caused by textural / anatomical differences in the wood, but it seems like it would be worth a try.
If I had a wood lathe, I would attempt a whistle made out of Quilted Maple. I used this wood for a preamp chassis. It sanded so smoothly and the dovetails look great. However, the quilted effect is certainly an anatomical feature which could cause trickiness for fine turning even though I have never tried it.
Please report back of your choice and success of whistle making using birch.
Charlie
I certainly will,
I’m still interested in Rowan, it is a very strong wood, which has been used for a variety of uses for its strength. Through the ages people have also thought it had mystical properties 
Maybe it could help with my playing 
You could soak the wood in a hardening oil (Danish oil) for a week or two, and then let it cure. This will strengthen and stabilize the wood when you turn it on the lathe.
Nice woods! I’d love to get my hands on some of those.
The Danish oil idea isn’t a bad one. I’ve done similar things with “softer” woods (soft being a relative term to describe woods like maple). I drill the bore of the whistle , let it “rest” for a month or so to dry from the inside out, and THEN soak it. This way the treating agent penetrates quite deeply. One material I’ve used with success is made by Minwax :
http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-56016/Detail
I’ve also used water based polyurethane.
A wood turning buddy of mine tells me he’s seen wooden bowls treated with this stuff with turned walls so thin you can see light through them.
I’ve used figured maples with great results in the past: Tiger and Birdseye, but not quilted. The problem with quilting is that the pattern is so large that on something as small as a whistle it won’t be very obvious.
I’ve seen various quilted woods used on guitars with gorgeous results.
Hi Brewerpaul
It’s great to swap experiences i appreciate all your tips.
If you need to dry wood fast, you can immerse it in virgin flax oil. Flax oil (linseed oil) has small molecules and will penetrate the wood cells (not many oils do this). Water will then be replaced by oil. A piece of wood sized to suit as a knife handle will take a week to loose its water when it is saturated with water. Flax oil will make the wood get a real great depth, its creates an illusion of actually looking beyond the surface of the wood. There’s a snag though,-no glue in the universe will bond to it after treating it this way, but the finish will be second no none.
I have been making wooden whistles for some time and I generally use ‘hedgerow’ timber such as hawthorn, beech, yew, cherry and so on. I have used birch a few times and it makes quite a nice whistle. Being less dense than typical hardwoods, the whistle is very light. The colour is very pale with litte graining. It does not have the richness of tone of the harder woods but they are perfectly acceptable.
I use a solvent based resin to harden and stablise the wood. The solvent draws the resin into the wood very quickly and then evaporates quickly leaving an extremely hard resinised wood that is waterproof and takes a nice polish. Needs less maintenance too.