The old piece of electrical tape over my chanter’s thumb hole was starting to slide around alot, so I took it off the other day to replace it. It left behind a huge glop of grimy sticky tape goop on the chanter which took a long time to get off. The thumb hole still needs something in it, though, to tune that back D. And I want to avoid tape from now on.
I’d like to try the cork-in-the-hole method (which they recommenD in the SWAUP piper’s handbook). Anybody done this? 'You just use wine bottle cork? How’d you get it to stay in there?
I stopped using electrical tape due to aforementioned glop and started using a black photo tape that doesn’t leave any residue on the chanter. I found it much easier to use than other tapes or wax. I just took a look at the type and it’s a 3M Scotch 235 (3407) Photo Mounting Tape. It basically looks like masking tape, but it is made to be repositioned so it isn’t as sticky as other tapes and won’t leave a residue.
I wasn’t going to add this to the discussion because it isn’t exactly what you were asking, but the discussion is running pretty dry so here’s my take.
Back in the day, we used Thermo-wax to reduce the size of holes in the chanter. You take a small bit, work it in your fingers until it is soft, stick it in the hole and then shape it with a toothpick or something else small and soft until it covers the amount of hole you want. It’s easy to play the chanter with the wax half done and check to see if you have it right. You need to use a small enough piece of wax that you are able to recess it into the hole without it extending into the chanter bore. If it’s not recessed, you’ll keep hitting it with your thumb and eventually shift it or knock it out.
The wax hardens as it cools and makes a “permanent” reduction of the hole size that is easily modified by and easily reversible.
One caveat: some of the things we did thirty years ago are out of favor now for various reasons. I don’t know why Thermo-wax would cause any problems, but maybe someone with more recent experience can chime in if they know a reason not to use it.
A piece of cork fills the c-natural hole on my keyless chanter. The cork degrades and begins to leak so I have to replace it now and then. I’d go with the wax if you can.
I also use wax, I suspect that alot of us do. I bought a block of it from my maker, its a beeswax something combo. It stays in the hole until you need to sharpen the pitch again.
learnthegrip: Where can one acquire Thermo-wax? I decided about a month ago to replace the tape (and poster putty attached to a rush) with wax in the chanter holes. I melted beeswax and sealing wax (the red stuff used for sealing the ends of cane drone reeds) and mixed them. It didn’t go well…the beeswax was too thin to work with. I ended up using poster putty directly in the chanter holes instead of wax. It’s working very well, but I’d like to give wax another go… I just think I need the right kind of wax.
I don’t actually melt the wax but hold a flame under the tip of a knife till hot and then slice off a small enough part of the beeswax concoction. With the wax still on the tip I place it at the top of the D hole and push it into place and form it.
I am more of the tape camp these days. But the odd time when I have needed to temporarily alter a tone hole I use thin (rope) window caulk. The beauty of it is that if it gets into your bore it will not stick to the inside of the chanter. Great for reg pins too.
I have some thermowax that I got in the late 1970s, but it’s been getting pretty dry so I’ve been looking high and low for some, as it never was easy to find. There’s lots of “Pipers Wax,” a mixture of beeswax and some tar-like substance, available but it’s not the same thing.
Finally found some from Pipelander in Newington, CT. I ordered a piece–really one is all you’ll need unless it dries out after 30 years–and when it arrived it was exactly the same as what I have been using. Even came in the same waxed paper wrapping.
There are a million uses for thermo-wax. It makes a drone bridle stay in place and it’s a great to hold the base-wrap before you use thread or hemp on a tenon. I used to wax hemp for binding chanter reeds as well, but I recently converted to the poly-thread camp.
Being a newbie on the forum I’m not sure if I should post Pipelander’s website address, but you can easily google them.
I make my own cobblers or black wax. It is a stiff black wax that has some tack. It is easy to remove and wipes off your pipes with a cloth.
You just take natural bees wax and melt it down with some roofing tar. I also add just a bit of hard wax for body. You can find the bees wax from a candle making supply. The tar can be found at most home improvement stores. I buy the stuff that comes in a tube for a caulk gun in the roofing section. Adjust the amounts of bees wax, tar, and hard candle wax depending on how you want your wax.
To melt it just put a pot in another pot of water. Slowly melt it down into an evil black mass of love. Then pour it into some molds. I use soda cans cut in half. You should have a lifetime supply of wax and enough to pass out at your next pipers gathering. Like Ken said, it works great for tone holes and is my method of choice. When making reeds you can run your binding through it to keep everything airtight and make the binding stay in place. When wrapping thread for stocks and joints you can apply it to the first few layers keeping everything in place. I also wax all the thread on my drone reeds and main stock cup. The cobblers wax keeps everything from coming loose. This is really handy in the winter so your drones and regs do not fly out of your bag.
I use bee’s wax for hole tuning. This is what most other cultures pipers use as well. It should be fresh as it hardens with age. Cobbler’s wax is a name only used by GHB suppliers for shoemaker’s wax. Cordwainers (shoemakers) also call it coad or code, an old name for the product. Thermowax is an English product with a coal tar base. Cordwainers don’t like it as it is not antiseptic as is the pine pitch based traditional product. Jard Holt used to make the pine tar product in the US, but it has not been made since that company sold out a few years ago. Pine pitch was used to tar lines in sailing. Ships stores in sailing ship days were all kinds of pine pitch products to waterproof decks and ropes as well. Occasionally some of the Holt product can be found, but a fugitive oil that was in it has dried out, rendering it too brittle. It can be revived and some add 10% beeswax to it. The substitute mixtures using bitumen or roofing tar, vs. pine tar are also not liked by cordwainers to make wax ends, to sew soles on new shoes. They say bitumen will, over time, rot the flax they use to make wax ends. They list formulas for the genuine article in “The Crispin Colloquy”, their online chat line, including all kinds of sources for pitch etc. and how to mix it by pulling it like taffy. I have made some of the bitumen product, but prefer the pine pitch based product. It uses rosin and lanolin as well. I just bought a large block of naval pitch and some rosin and will soon be producing it for sale. The Holt product was only pine pitch, rosin and oil. I like to add bees wax as well and use lanolin instead of the fugitive oil. A century ago these were common products. Cordwainers, reedmakers an pipers are about all the present demand, hardly enough for a commercial venture. I just saw some “cobbler’s wax” made by a Canadian firm sold with a strip of leather in a GHB supply shop. It was not sticky at all and appeared to be just black dyed parafin. The old Ball Thermowax seems to be no longer made. GHB shops sell a blackwaxed string which also has no pitch in it and is just dyed waxed string. Let the buyer beware.
Good info, Ted. Yeah, there is some wax being sold by GHB suppliers that is a very poor substitute for the genuine article, or at least what I think is the genuine article. I still have a bit of the cobblers wax that we were passing around in the SF Pipers Club in the early 80’s and, like you suggested, it has entirely dried out to the point of being useless.
The item I received from Pipelander was exactly the same as the wax I got in San Francisco all those years ago. It was wrapped in the same thin layer of waxed tissue with Thermowax printed on it. It has the same coal tar smell.
It’s exciting that you are going to produce the pitch based product. I’ll be lining up to get some.
Pipelander does sell Thermowax. It is new, old stock and cannot be replaced, as the Ball Company no longer makes it. They also sell “cobbler’s wax”, which is the non-stickey black dyed product I warned about in my previous post on this thread. The Edinburgh Bagpipe Company sells a “black cobbler’s wax” for 2.16 pounds per stick which is a new product, very similar to Thermowax, coal-tar base, and you get two to three times the amount that is in the old Thermowax packet. It works fine for our uses, but I still prefer the pine-pitch product. It also smells great!
Just checked with Pipelander. They are getting Thermowax from Kron Bagpipes in New York. Kron is making it themselves with permission from the british former manufacturer. This product still seems available from two manufacturers. Kron charges $5.00 per half ounce.
I originally learned about cobblers wax after receiving instruction from you at the SoCal Tionol in 2007. I never knew there was a pine pitch version of it. After seeing you and Benedict use it for drone and chanter reeds I was compelled to make some. I managed to make some just like the cobblers wax I remember, but the coal tar version of it. I am going to try making some of the pine pitch cobblers wax. Thanks for all the interesting and useful info!
I found a good history on pine tar here for anyone that is interested.
I did find a source of authentic pine tar in varying grades from this company. They also manufacture some in the traditional way from stumps. Their Kiln Burn Pine Tar seems most suited I would guess because of the high resin content.
