Tell us about your homemade whistle (the good, the bad, and

Whistle
1

It has been a while since Dale graciously published the Bloody Hand Whistle Plans on the Chiff and Fipple website.

I long to hear how others have faired in producing their own homemade whistles.

Please feel free to suggest improvements, post pictures, or relate any production guffaws.



[ This Message was edited by: bloody hand on 2002-08-10 20:38 ]

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My personal efforts at making a whistle have given me a deeper appreciation of the art of making good ones. Which I’ve never been able to do. And I tried…and tried.

3

I have not made a single whistle since I wrote the original plans.

[ This Message was edited by: bloody hand on 2002-08-10 23:35 ]

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Well let’s see… My first two were copper soprano D’s. The hard thing was getting the fipple correct. But 1/2" copper was too large for a soprano. Next came a low G made from 1/2 PVC. It worked better.

The neighborhood kids have been watching me work in my garage and want me to make them one. I think it will be more cost effective to buy them each a Meg! But, I digress…

The most difficult thing is calculating finger hole location and spacing. I found an Excel spreadsheet on the Internet that calculates the spacing for you but it was off on every whistle. I would appreciate any information on calculating holes.

I just came back from vacation in Tahoe and picked up a cedar Native American flute kit for $20. ($517.93 Canadian) I’m afraid to start drilling holes in it. It lookes like it will be a alto G.

Gary

5

I’ve tried making a few PVC hi Ds, and could get the tuning pretty accurate, but finding a compatible mouthpiece was always a problem. I gave it up for a while then decided to try the bloody hand copper whistle instructions. By sheer luck, the first one actually turned out pretty nice, using 1/2" OD (3/8" ID) copper tubing and a tweaked Generation D mouthpiece.

The Good…
This whistle sounds great - very sweet and pure with no chiff and is surprisingly accurate in both octaves. Sounds especially good on recordings. Probably the nicest ‘sounding’ whistle I have.

The Bad…
Nothing really terrible. It’s tunrned out to be a relatively quiet whistle due to tweaking the mouthpiece, and isn’t the ‘ideal’ session whistle. I’d prefer a bit more volume but it’s not too bad. It’s probably on the order of a Hoover in terms of volume. Oh yea…drilling the holes in copper was a real challenge, even using a drill press.

The Ugly…
A copper tube with blue mouthpiece isn’t what I’d call stikingly beautiful, and the copper tarnishes quickly.

All in all I’m pretty proud of this first (and probably last) attempt at a copper whistle, and my thanks to bloody hand for the inspiration.

Denny

[ This Message was edited by: DRC on 2002-08-11 14:28 ]

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Gary:

I used the following Eric Thorp-Olsen website for my calculations on finger hole location.

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/4915/INDEX.HTM

I have never found anything on finger hole diameters. I would start small, file further out using a circular file or bit, and use a tuner as you go.

DRC:

Is there any chance you could post a picture of your blue and copper D?

bloody hand

[ This Message was edited by: bloody hand on 2002-08-11 18:32 ]

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Bloody Hand,

Be happy to show it off! This is a quick scan. The holes appear as if they’re not in straight alignment with the tube due to scanning at an angle, but they’re actually (amazingly & luckily) pretty straight. I’ve done some recording with it and have been thinking about posting some things to Clips & Snips but just haven’t had the time. One thing for sure, this experience has certainly given me a strong appreciation for the true craftsmen. Even though mine turned out well, I believe I’ll leave the whistle making to them.

[ This Message was edited by: DRC on 2002-08-11 22:50 ]

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Thanks for putting that article out there! I made my first whistle with your plans. The article was well put together with instructions, pictures and technical drawings. I followed directions, but mine was terribly out of tune! It gave me a better appriciation for people who make whistles. At the time I decided to give up and leave it to the experts. Later, after help and inspiration from a whistle maker I made more whistles that were a lot better. I even cut the hole, bent the blade and made my own fipple. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. In short, I still have a lot of appriciation for whistle smiths! Thanks again!
Nathan

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DRC:

Wow, she is a real thing of beauty. Well done. You should be very proud.

Thanks Nate, I appreciate your remarks. The fipple frustration syndrome pushed me down the prefab whistle path. Just getting the finger holes inline and tuned convinced me to stay out of full-scale whistle production.

10

Sorry about this one guys…I just couldn’t help myself.

While at camp, I made what I call a “bottle pipe.” It was basically an Aquafina bottle with a whistle duct-taped to the opening and a tampon applicator duct-taped to a hole that I cut in the side of the bottle. It didn’t work like a real ‘bag’ on a set of pipes, it worked just like a regular whistle, only it took more air because you have to fill up the bottle.

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I used your idea of a sweetone C fipple and made an A and an F out of pvc. I wrapped the fipple in teflon tape and fit it into a 1/2 inch connector to make an interchangeable head. I used the flutomat calculator to get the hole placement and sizes.

The good:
I got 2 whistles for about a 4 dollar investment.
The bad:
Breath control is tricky. The right note is in there, but I can be off 30 cents either way depending on how hard I blow.
The ugly:
I tried a low D body and it didn’t work at all. No sound at all for the lower octave.

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I’ve done a low F and a high C# whistle in UPVC (diff pipe diameters). FIpple plug is wine cork (roughly cut and shaped with a penknife), but on the windway surface of the cork I stick a hard piece of plastic (cut from clear name tag holder). This is only for fun and I didn’t want to invest in power tools and all sorts of stuff. So I used things I could find at home.

The low F is easily payable up to 2nd octave G fingering. After that, the notes are hard to blow in tune and tone deteriorates. Tone is ok but furry. Volume is softish in the lower notes.
It’s in tune with itself, but may not be absolute-pitch perfect when measured with a tuner. Tends to clog up at times because the windway is small. Pipe diameter is on the large side (fatter than my Goldie low D!), so I cut a thin ring from the spare pipe and attached it to the whistle body with a rubber band to be my thumb rest/ring.

I’ve posted with it on Clips and SNips - a Chinese New Year tune called “gongxi”, and “Just a closer walk with Thee”. If the latter is still there you can actually hear the whistle clogging up towards the end and the sound dying off. YOu may even be able to hear me blowing and sucking to eliminate the moisture while still playing.

The C# looks much uglier and doesn’t play as well. But it does play in tune with itself up to 2nd octave G fingering. Why C#? Because I have most keys already. Was hoping it wld be a useful addition to my collection.

I’m currently taking my time with a perspex tube. It’s brittle, so the holes/window have to be formed very carefully by hand. Whenever the mood strikes, I’ll do a bit, then put it away again.

I’m not even sure why I did these; I think it was just to prove to myself that I could do it.

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I built a low D from 1 in O.D. Aluminum tubing from the hardware store. There is plenty of info out there on hole placement (there is even a flute website that calculates them for you). I formed the fipple by making a square window in the tube, then bashing down the front to form the blade and ranp. I fashioned the fipple block also from aluminum using a carbide blade on my table saw (it broke off a few teeth, but so what). I had the whole thing anodized black. It is a thing of beauty, and if I had a digital camera, I’d post a picture, but alas…

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Sorry for the multiple post, but I forgot to say, that the tone on my whistle is good, it’s in tune (I used a tuner to get it right), but it takes a lot of air. I did not flatten the tube over the windway, which was a mistake. In addition, the relatively thin tubing tends to “ring” on the higer notes. On my next one, I’ll use thicker tubing and flatten the windway.

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Quick and dirty Low D recipe


Here is what I did a few years ago when I wanted a aluminum Low D but didn’t have the funds.

  1. Borrow a good low whistle from a friend and put it on a Xerox machine. Serious craftsmen start with a blue print. Measure the finger hole diameter and the distances from the fipple blade to the center of each finger hole and to the end of the whistle before you return the whistle.
  2. The next step is to acquire an aluminum body at no cost. Call up your local hanggliding club and get some information on frequently used sites in your area. When you get there, have someone point out the landing zones, especially those called the “crash pad”, “graveyard” or “emergency something”. This is the place to hang out. A bad landing usually don’t cause severe damage to the pilot, but they often results in a few broken down tubes, which is the part you’re after. Rigging the wind sock to decrease the waiting time is NOT a good idea. When you see a landing that ends in a cloud of dust and some bent aluminum parts, its time to act. Run out and offer your help. The pilot will take every chance to cover up the mistake before his friends come sweeping down. Bent down tubes sticking out of the glider bag is not a sign of a good day on the mountain, he will be more than happy to part with them. Take the best parts home to the workshop. I made three bodies this way and this aircraft aluminum seems to be very nice whistle material, they all have a rich and round tone.
  3. Drill the holes with a diameter little less than the original blue print so that you will be able to adjust the tuning. Cut it into the right length.
  4. Call up Hobgoblin music or any other retailer that stores Howard whistles and order a spare plastic head piece. I think the charged me 5 £, five or six years ago.
  5. Time for tuning. Start at the lower end and work your way up using a small file or a Dreml tool. And hey, the finger holes don’t need to be symmetrical. It’s better to get the tuning right than having a non playable but good looking whistle.

Ok, it’s ugly. But it has a real nice tone and even if it not my favorite low whistle I tend to use it more and more.

By the way, the keel bar or the leading edge of a hangglider can be made into a nice aluminum didge.


STIFF WINGS!

/MarcusR

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DRC:
I agree with bloody hand, I think your home-made whistle looks great!

I am thinking about making a whistle or two (like someone else said, to be able to say I did). I was wondering what materials have been tried. Here are the materials I have heard used so far:

Body:
Copper
Aluminum
PVC
CPVC
ABS
Perspex
Wood

Fipple:
Wood
Cork
Corian
Delrin
Pre-made mouthpieces
Aluminum

Has anyone tried other materials?

John Mac

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We definitely need more scans of everbody’s homemade whistle. A picture is worth a thousand words.

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Timely thread as far as I’m concerned, Lamh Dearg, I recently found a length of copper tube at home and felt an overwhwelming urge to try my hand at making a BHW the evening before I set off on holidays.

Unfortunately, it was a metric size (15 cm external diameter), so I wasn’t sure if it corresponded exactly to your instructions. I did find that a Generation Bb mouthpiece (which sounds fine with the Bb body) fitted it quite snugly, and did the cavity blue-tac tweak and confirmed that it still sounded good with the supplied body before venturing into the grow-your-own world.

Given the uncertainty about the metric dimensions, rather than simply use your template I calculated all the hole sizes and intervals in metric values on the basis of the formulae in the separate page to which your instructions refer, and got a reasonably good but not perfect result (hole location and size did diverge somewhat from the template).

The tube wall is about 1 mm thick, so the thickness is probably a relevant factor. I’m now on hols. in the Canary Islands, so can’t give a detailed description of the shortcomings of the product, which wassn’t good enough to inflict on the local wildlife. The one thing which strikes me from memory is that the upper octave is flat rather than sharp as expected. So can you or another contributor provide general advice on what type of tweaking will correct this (e.g. undercutting, hole size versus distance from airhole etc.)? If I can get a decent result, I’d be delighted to post metric dimensions for the benefit of those living in the post-French-Revolution world.

19

Bloody Hand & John Mac,

Thanks for your very kind comments! The whistle making thing became a challenge more than anything and I just lucked out with this one. BTW, the hole placement was copied directly from a Clare nickel D.

Denny