Knife?
… no, no, no. It is a ‘Bodhran Repellent Device’. 
I worked with it for a while but never really had satisfactory results. The grain was too shreddy and open to work with any kind of fine detail. The color is cool and all and it takes a nice polish, but fine edges tend to break away and crumble. Kind of funky to ream as well. Not very similar to the rosewoods I’ve worked with…(shrug). Works a treat for tool handles. k
Kevin wrote:
I worked with it for a while but never really had satisfactory results. The grain was too shreddy and open to work with any kind of fine detail. The color is cool and all and it takes a nice polish, but fine edges tend to break away and crumble. Kind of funky to ream as well. Not very similar to the rosewoods I’ve worked with…(shrug). Works a treat for tool handles.
Thanks for the feedback Kevin. It doesn’t sound hopeful but I have a couple turning squares that I think I will do some experimenting with for the fun of it. If at the least it will make nice chisel handles 
Cheers,
CJ
Closeup of my old B-stick. I got a log of danish yew from a friend, who seasoned it for more than 25 years, brought it to Charles Roberts, and he made me this C-chanter. Never could make it work in C, but plays beautyful in tune in B… :roll:
Nice mellow tone and it looks gorgeous.
Morten
For a D set: ebony and boxwood with brass fittings. (soon… very, very soon)
For a flat set… hmmm I’ve always wondered about bloodwood. It would have to be a very deep red colour though.
Bloodwood is beautiful stuff. I’ve made a couple of sets of smallpipes from it and a few pratice chanters. It has a slightly mellower soun than blackwood at about an eigth of the cost. I will continue to use it, but only for bellows blown pipes as it has a tendancy to crack from too much moisture.
Marc
P.S. It’s also very nice for wands to be given to Harry Potter fans.
Well, I would want a B flat set in Bloodwood…
and maybe cocobolo for a C set… or Cherry or something…
I guess that means I should go for Dogwood or get an E set… oh well!
I’ve never used bloodwood, might give it a try
Purple heart sounds cool, but I haven’t seen it.
Ray Sloan is making mine from african blackwood.
One of the few salient points I remember from David Quinn’s lecture on pipemaking at the Chris Langan weekend (besides how cool Pat D’Arcy’s set looks, and how loud a foot tapping on the upstairs floor of the TRANZAC sounds downstairs) was that historically, and Quinnsically, ebony was much preferred over african blackwood because it resonates and sounds more alive somehow.
I don’t know myself as I don’t have any to compare the two, but that’s what I learned.
I seem to recall DMQ saying he just preferred working in ebony. Joe K made a chanter or two in purple heart - really gross looking stuff. His apple chanters in C# are way cool looking and sounding (if you like that sort of key).
I’d be interested in finding a light colour wood for mounts that stays light. Boxwood darkens too much over time. Something that would stay a light butter colour would look great against mopane. I don’t see much stuff in mopane, but it has a beautiful colour and grain to it.
There’s also stuff from SAmerica called ipe (eepay). It is supposed to be impervious to moisture. I wonder if it would make good pipes (?).
djm
Snakewood, Bloodwood, Mopane, or Paduk. All nice grains and colors.
I use ebony not because I prefer working with it, but rather for the sound that it yields. It’s a pain in the arse to work with, but I think that the best tonal results in all keys and bore configurations I’ve worked in have come from ebony. When I make something for my own amusement or use, or as an experiment, it is usually not ebony, and that accounts for most (but not all) of the K&Q sets out there in various other woods, such as mopane, Castella box (a.k.a. lemonwood), pear, ziricote and sacau. If tone were not a consideration, I would prefer to work in African blackwood, which is still my favorite in terms of appearance, feel, and working characteristics. Unfortunately, I don’t much care for the tone quality African blackwood gives the pipes, especially in wide bore D chanters.
Thanks for the clarification, David. I am curious about something. Since you have had the opportunity to make many sets in many different types of wood, have you ever found that different woods may lend themselves more to one key versus another, or does it not matter at all?
Thx,
djm
Satinwood
What do people think to Mopane as a wood for chanters? Does it have any particular characteristics that are suited to the Uilleann Pipes?
If i remember correctly, it’s really friggin’ heavy.
I really like curly lemonwood, both for it’s grain and it’s mellowness.
What about plumwood it has a nice mellow sound and is a light wood in weight as my old snakewood set was heavier wood.
Here is Andreas Rogge playing his own making plumwood B 3/4 set
Cheers
Ferg
I’m not sure, but I think someone has mentioned mopane being used before. I have a D flute in mopane. The maker, Casey Burns, says it has the same characteristics as ABW, but less expensive and more readily available (for him, anyway). For just looks alone, I like the mopane very much.
djm