I am interested to know which material gives the best sound, having worked at the Clarke Tinwhistle Co, I was led to beleive that tin gave the best sound. However whistles are made of many different materials, Nickel, aluminium, brass, wood and plastic and as someone that sells them I am interested to know from you guys what you think?
God bless
Ian
That’s a bit like asking which tastes best, an apple or an orange. Different materials will give variations in tone etc. but which is best is entirely subjective. There would probably be as many differing opinions on this as there are whistlers.
Define “best”. To me there is no “best” sound. First of all it’s a matter of personal taste, different people will enjoy different sound qualities and characteristics. I think all the materials that are frequently used to make whistles can be the “best” material in the opinion of one player. There is no best.
Of course there are materials that aren’t suitable at all for making whistles, but no one makes whistles out of these materials anyway.
Personally, I don’t get too hung up by the material issue. I find a whistle that works, regardless of material. I think the most important thing is the design of the whistle. My favurite whistles are aluminium Syns, but I won’t say that aluminium is the best whistle material anyway. Other aluminium whistles might sound crap.
The material doesn’t make the whistle, the craftsman does.
A whistle made out of any of the above materials will sound well in the hands of a good player 
Horses for courses. Aside from the question of personal taste, brass or nickel can be good for a brightish session reel, while for a slow air someone might like the slightly mellower tone of a wooden whistle or a plastic one like the ones Tony Dixon makes.
But as hinted above, craftsmanship, material, design AND the player make the sound, not just material. material can only really be considered as crucial if you’re comparing versions of the same instrument made from different materials: for example, brass and Nickel Feadogs or the Dixon tuning slide models with aluminium, plastic or brass tubes.
Half a dozen cheap brass whistles will give half a dozen different sounds and the same is true of plastics - consider the gentle tone of a Dixon plastic whistle to that of a Susato (actually, I think they are different plastics, so that may not be a good example).
It is all preference.
you are all sooooo wrong…
best whistle material: a composite consisting of ground up european and african swallow bones, held together with space age polymers, turned to a wall thickness of 2.3 mm…
What are you nuts?!?
everyone knows the wall thickness should be 2.67mm
… knuckelhead!
The material is far less important than the design. I doubt there’s a person alive who could tell the difference between brass and nickel-plated tubing, for instance in a blind “taste” test.
Clarkes have their inimitable sound because of the conical bore.
Well, I never! Obviously you have never known the pleasures of playing such material turned to 2.3mm. I bet you are using a non-ISO approved space-age polymer…
Oh, I’ve tried the 2.3 but I felt it lacked a solid low end. I prefer the 2.67 thickness for the bottom D fortification and stability into the third octave as well.
I used to use the Space Age polimer but I have found I get a more trad sound if I bond the swallow bones together with a mixture of garlic juice and reduced walrus spittle. It’s really quite strong, (the smell and the physical integrity) and environmentally friendly! 
You might be surprised. The metallurgy of brass-wind instruments, trumpets, trombones and the like have a far ranging impact on the tonal characteristics of the instrument and are quite easily identifiable.
Granted these are lower pitched instruments with a lot more surface area interacting with the waveform, but you can hear the difference between a wooden whistle and a metal whistle… I think it would only be a step further to hear differences in metal types. But most of it is as you say, all in the design I would venture to guess.
Copelands have a conical bore but they don’t sound quite like Clarkes.
No one factor can make the whole whistle sound. That goes for material, fipple, bore, windway, jadajada. They all have their impact on the sound.
And the best material for a whistle is not aluminium, brass or a composite consisting of ground up european and african swallow bones, held together with space age polymers. It’s flame hardened mutton fat.
In all seriousness…
When I was studying saxophone, the things that made the most impact on the sound were the things closest to the mouth (reeds, mouthpiece, ligature). Within each of those things, there are each about 10-15 different factors you can worry about. The reason these things mattered most is because everything after simply dampened parts the soundwave, and amplified the rest. Yes, you can fuss about laquer, metal, pads, resonators, etc., but they don’t matter as much as the core three.
So, when it comes to whistles, where the vibrating column is so short, I’d say everything matters equally. This is why you can have so many makers making whistles that each possess the basic sound of a “tin whistle”, but at the same time having a unique sound.
Anywho, dunno if that helps at all. The best you can do is find a whistle you like a lot, document all of the features to that whistle, and then find whistles with similar features. That is how I went, and it only took me $1000 to find the set I like the most… (turns out I like wood and delrin best…)
good luck in yer search!
The thickness of the tubing has a noticeable effect on a whistle, but I can’t really tell that choice of materials makes any significant difference.
As already mentioned, conical vs. cylindrical bore is a noticeable difference… but I really don’t think choice of material matters except aesthetically.
I like nickle a lot, from my very limited experience. (just give the man what he wants guddamit)
I agree with with much of what folks have offered above. The key for me is the quality of the tone. You know it when you hear it – or when you don’t, particularly in the upper register. I prefer Burke brass for the high whistles and then I seem to move into aluminum and sometimes other materials for lower whistles. You’ll have to listen to which ones sing best for you…
Cheers,
tim