I’m new to this forum, and new to whistling. I’ve been reading some of the webpages pointed to in recent threads, and I’m interested in making a whistle of my own. I have plenty of 1/2" stainless steel tubing available. All the articles I’ve seen about making your own whistle used PVC, copper, or aluminum.
Is there a reason that stainless isn’t used? I’ve thought of two reasons it might not be good: tone color, and the difficulty of working with stainless tube.
If I make a stainless whistle, is it likely to sound terribly bright and shrill (due to being such a hard metal)? Or does it stand a chance of sounding good?
I don’t really care for the smell/taste of copper tubing, and I thought that stainless would be more durable and corrosion-resistant.
I searched the archives for stainless whistles, and found one that had a stainless mouthpiece, but none that were made from stainless tube.
Have you ever played or tried to build a stainless tube whistle? Is it a bad idea?
If you can work the metal, I wouldn’t think stainless would pose a problem. I would think most people don’t use it just because it’s easier to use softer metals. I could be wrong. Someone else will tell you something useful, I suspect, though.
If the inside diameter is 1/2’’ and the wall thickness is about 1/8’’ and you can work the tubing it should be ok. When you say tubing I am thinking it is not 1/4’’ thick. And it might weigh more than brass but not so much you can’t hold it. Stainless can be brought to a very bright shine. Send me a piece so I can try it to. And I will send you some delrin for the plug. Seems like a good idea to me.
OK, I would like to work something out here. Years ago I worked on the nuculear powered ship Sanavana at the maintainece facility in Galveston Texas. I am familiar with working with stainless but have no acess to it now unless I want to buy more than I need. I have sent you a pm, and here is my email. tommyviking1@aol.com
I have made a stainless steel A and a stainless steel Sop D. Both are lovely whistles and the tone on both is quite unique.
In line with other posts. the issue is working with the metal. It is as you know extremely hard. Weight is not an issue unless you dont like heavy whistles. I personally like a bit of substance and the look and feel of the whistle is second to none!
I build the Stainless Serpent, a narrow-bore soprano D. Here are the things I’ve found about working with it:
Use cobalt drills and milling cutters. HSS do poorly and dull almost instantly.
If you are going to make the whistle tunable, be prepared to roughen the surface where you will affix the tuning slide, and possibly knurl it in place as well. I use a high-strength industrial epoxy to hold my tuning slides on.
Prepare to replace your needle files when you trim the blade. Same deal there as for drills. SS eats other steels. You might use diamond-coated needle files, which I believe are still available for cheap from Harbor Freight.
Indenting the blade (unless you’re building a curved windway) is damn difficult to do accurately, and it might be best to use a punch and die setup in a press to accomplish it. Not hard to make, but takes almost as long as the whistle.
If the wall thickness of your tube is more than about 0.040, I’d say forget it and get some thinner-walled tube. 1/16 even (0.0625) is going to eat your tools up very quickly.
… and finally …
GO FOR IT!! Don’t let the above stop you. Stainless whistles are pretty to look at, and sound just great. If you do the curved-windway thing, and use brass tubing for the mouthpiece surround and the tuning slide, polish everything up and it will look like a little jewel.
Get a picture of it for us, and make sound clips. Love to see and hear!!
Cheers,
Bill Whedon
Serpent Music
Steel whistles, by and large, seem to have a little “brighter” tone to my ear, given play next to an equivalent brass or copper instrument. All materials have their resonances, and all those resonances “color” the sound somewhat. I like steel a lot, both for the brightness, and for the durability.
As Serp. says, as the vibration created in the windway/fipple travels down the bore of the whistle it will set up resonances in the material which will absorb and/or reflect the sound wave. All this will serve to change the nature of the sound eminating from the instrument. The harder the material the greater reflection of the sound wave creating a sharper or brighter note. Wooden whistles on the other hand will absorb a lot of the vibration giving a mellow, more rounded sound.
David O’Brien is much more technical in this area than me and he will be able to give you the science bit if you need it.
