I am currently looking for anyone who would be willing to give me ideas of how to learn to make uilleann pipes. I love the sound of uilliann pipes but have never played them but i own and play scottish small pipes though.
This is probably not the answer you were hoping for, but I would think that the first step would be to acquire a good set of uilleann pipes and learn how to play them. You would have a difficult time assessing your instrument making without at least intermediate playing skills.
Welcome to C&F.
I agree with Chadd and offer no advice on how to become a pipemaker other than piper being your most important requsite.
Chadd, that is probably very sound advice. However, I know one pipemaker, Joe Kennedy, who started out with a very poor practise set from Ireland (no, I won’t go into who the maker was, as it upsets so many people on this board to hear the truth). Anyway, he couldn’t afford a good set, so started out on the road to learning to make his own. As a mechanic, and having a thorough background in metal-working, he felt he had the tools and skills, but needed drawings and technical understanding to make his own.
His solution? Go to Ireland and apprentice with a master pipemaker - Geoff Wooff. He has all the available documentation from many sources, and has had input from other makers and reedmakers (e.g. B. Koehler). It still took him three years and a lot of lumber to come up with a worthwhile design of his own.
I don’t know that the same level of help is still available, or that all the same documentation is still there. Cerrtainly for someone starting out, you had better already have a good grounding in all the skills required - wood turning, metal working, some musical ability, plus have the tools and know how to use them. Its all uphill after that. 
djm
djm wrote:
I know one pipemaker, Joe Kennedy, who started out with a very poor practise set from Ireland (no, I won’t go into who the maker was, as it upsets so many people on this board to hear the truth).
Noooo there aren’t any bad pipemakers out there, are there 
Not entirely correct, While Joe has been over he never came over as an apprentice. he has a lot of contact with Geoff, at first over the phone and over the past years via e-mail.
There isn’t much point in making an instruments you can’t play. You’ll never be able to set it up properly.
Actually, he has stayed with Geoff a couple of times, but yes, that’s how his initial contact started out. But this quibbling is besides the point. The thing is, there are a lot of skills required to make a set of UPs.
Even if you have the most perfect set of plans, you are going to have to make your own reamers, etc. and know how to use them. You are going to need excellent reedmaking skills. Lots of stuff to bone up on before starting to take a crack at making UPs.
djm
Learn to play first, it will make a big difference in how the fruit of your labor sounds and plays.
I wish our recent crop of new whistle-smiths would read this thread. :roll:
Once again, I am taking steps to flesh out my paltry messages-per-day numbers by pasting in here below the text of a previous post. It still seems to apply, more or less, although as others have already pointed out, you have to start by learning to play the instrument. To try to start making pipes without being able to play is just silly. I should know.
Does the world need another good pipemaker?
Posted 2003-01-04 22:36
I’m deciding what to do after my stay at home father gig is up. When Liam starts kindergarten ( aprox 1.5 years from now)I’ll need to have something to do that generates some kind of income. I wanted to explore the possibility of making uilleann pipes. It seems like folks are always are on some sort of waiting list to get some good pipes. So I guess the need is high.
Any thoughts on how to get started? Should I travel to Ireland and study or what.
Thanks in advance for any imput.
Phizillip
I’ve been agonizing over these very same questions for something like 27 years now, and frankly, I haven’t come up with any really satisfying answers.
You used the term “some kind of income.” That’s about the size of it. Making uilleann pipes is certainly no sure way to achieve financial security. Everybody I know who has gotten into it has done it for reasons other than because they thought it was a sweet meal ticket. To be blunt, if your prime reason for considering it is because you see an economic niche that you could help fill, you should stop considering it.
The pipemakers who have made a go of it, i.e. been able to keep their noses above water, do it (have done it) because they felt, at least at some level, that they had to do it. They would not have been content doing anything else. This has little or nothing to do with whether they (we) have made good pipes, and consequently does not really have much to do with the question “does the world need another good pipemaker?”
But here are some thoughts on how to get started:
First, learn to play the instrument really well. Second, learn how to make really excellent reeds. Presumably you already play the pipes, so achieving these two goals won’t require much (more) money, but will require a good deal of well-directed time.
Third, get lots of first-hand exposure to the instrument. Look at and study lots of different pipes by different makers of all time periods. You won’t be able to know what’s good (the instrument, the reeds, the playing) if you don’t know what’s been done before. Whether you believe it or not, it’s a pretty safe bet that one or more pipemakers before you have tried just about any idea you can come up with. Since Ireland is the place with the greatest concentration of pipes, pipers, reedmakers and pipemakers, it makes sense to spend some time there seeing what’s what. However, that being said, one of the finest reedmakers I know, a man with broad and deep knowledge of the instrument, has never seen Ireland “or the sky above it.”
Fourth, learn to turn well. Most of what people see and live with in a set of pipes is determined by the skill of the pipemaker as a turner. Fifth, learn to work metal: all the skills of the jeweler and the silversmith are required. Developing skills in turning and metalwork can be done without making pipes, and good instruction and guidance can be had just about everywhere you find people practicing these skills.
At the end of the day, I think that if you are cut out to be making pipes, that’s what you will do, and no amount of advice, good or bad, will keep you from it. I guess if you have to ask if you should do it, you probably shouldn’t.
David Quinn
Well, you could start learning to make the pipes and start a nice long waiting list. Seems like this is getting to be a prerequisite for a pipe maker these days.
-Patrick
Patrick, the waiting list comes AFTER years of successfully satisfying customers… reputation
Join the amateur bagpipe makers group yahoo.com. They have a good forum and many willing to take a guess at your questions. There are some plans and tips for making tools and putting a bore through your wood without too much difficulty. I wood suggest building a set of smallpipes first, since:
1.you already have a working knowledge of how they’re set-up and sound.
2.Tuning and reeding them will be much easier than uilleanns,
3.They use less wood if materials cost is a consideration.
After you can make a good set of smallpipes, then look into making other more comlex bored pipes.
Look into a metalsmithing/jewelry class at your local community college. That will cover enough of the basics to get you going for making ferrules and fittings and will provide you with a suitable workshop and tools without you having to sink so much cash into buying them yourself. Don’t let nay sayers squelch your efforts before you try. You might find you like it and do it well.
Best of luck,
Marc
Since you already play a bellows blown bagpipe, taking on the Uilleann Bagpipe should be an easier undertaking than most folks will go through. The fingering is different, but not by much, and the pressure required to keep the UP going differs very little as well.
Honestly, I think it is in your best interst to get to know the beastie a little better, affording you an intamacy with the instrument’s demands in tone, reed making and in ‘feel’, thus enabling you to better construct a sound instrument.
Personally, I wish I had the time, money, patience and sheer will to make these things myself…but sadly, I do not. I really admire anyone willing to take on the huge task of amassing the knowledge, skill, tools and courage to become a pipe maker.
The best of luck to you…