Are there any cane suppliers that anyone knows of that are stocked w/Tenor Drone Cane ?
Try npu.10 sticks of various sizes for 5 euros.
Hi there 
NPU very rarely have anything which is suitable for a tenor drone reed. The best thing is to contact the source in spain El Medir. Ask for the uilleann pipe cane price list and you wil see the cane 4/5mm dia.
The last time i got some the price was about 1.50 Euro per stick.
I dont believe they have a minimum order also it might be worth while to get all of your cane supplies there and save in time and money. Also the cane is far superior IMHO to the French material that NPU supply.
Hope this helps 
Patrick
Heya Kynch.
I am currently away from home, but upon my return to Gator Country, I’ll get in touch with you re: tenor drone cane.
Iforgot ,try joseph e. smith.
Thanks All!
I make tenor drone reeds out of Norway maple twigs. Available on most every street in the world. Color of leaves varies, green and dark purple are most common. Summer’s the time to harvest them, off the ground that is.
Kevin,
What is your technique for making drone guills out of maple twigs? I use offcuts of curlymaple from my violin making to make composite reeds and they work well. How does the tone of yours compare with Arundo?
You make 'em same as with elder. They’re a bit more muted than cane. I guess, never mucked about with cane much actually. I use an electric drill to really clean out the pith. The bore of Norway maple’s always very small so it’s only suitable for tenor reeds, and possibly narrowish bore stuff at that. You scrape off the pith with whatever’s handy, a good buck knife, or a potato peeler. They need a bit of drying, it’s hard wood too - they’re tough to cut tongues for compared to elder or other woods like Bigleaf maple, which I also use for bass drones.
Search for elder reed discussions here. Stew’s an elder drone guy too and makes gobs of reeds, he had good advice.
I have just recently made tenor and bari elder drone reeds. They were a real pain in the bum to get right, but the tone is 2nd to none. For those not yet familiar with the difference twix elder and cane;
cane would have more fizz, and upper “stuff” happening with the actual sound of the note. Elder would have far less fizz in fact, that fizz is not really there, and there’s more note/fundamental. The rest, well you’ll have to hear it as words fall kinda short here…
Peter Hunter brilliantly tapers his drone sockets accomodate the bent twigs.
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You mean a conical reed seat? Most makers do that, I think.
Or you mean the sockets in the stock, so the reeds aren’t colliding? That’s sharp, with a hollow stock you can angle the drones themselves so they don’t collide.
Elder reeds are sometimes so bent you can have the tongue hitting the stock wall when the drone is rotated to a certain angle, giving an optional extra sound effect.
Cane is thinner/harder so it would give a brighter/louder sound I’d think. I’ve made super-thin elder reeds that were fairly bright, too. Geoff Wooff’s Harrington pipes with elder reeds seem very bright, also. It’s nice to have some control over factors like that. Elder drones seem to blend a bit better overall, perhaps.
Hard=bright seems a constant rule. I’ve a few antique flutes/piccolos with ivory headjoints which are definitely brighter than the wood ones.
kev,
ya the inside of the stock! I have no totally straight elder reeds, so that design would sure be handy to say the least for us in search of the arcane. I actually kept the bag pressed and turn the drone until I found a position that it would sound.
also, the was major dicking around with the reed get it steady under pressure, but well worth it.