Whistle Fashion 101

Whistle
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Are you tired of that cobby Generation with the mangey-dog-peeling-finnish? How about that that chewed green thing that’s supposed to be a fipple headjoint? I have some suggestions for the crafty and aesthetic minded

Patina color for the brass and copper whistle owner can be done by lightly sanding all the varnish off the metal tube and then place it in a ziplock bag with tobacco soaked in household amonia cleaner. The combination of acids will give a mottled green “antique” color to the metal. Overnight will usualy do it but you can leave it in the acid longer for a deep forrest green. Rinse in clear water and spray with polymer clearcoat after drying to seal it. The inside can easily be wire brushed and polished smooth.

A colorful Polyclay Jacket of elastic Promat or Sculpy III can be applied over any metal whistle tube using the Mille’ Fiore’ or “million flowers” cane technique as long as you are careful not to extend the depth of the playing holes or cover the tube where the fipple goes. Polyclay can simulate Jade,Pearl,Wood and semi-precious stones like Green Malachite and would be a boon to those who wish to camo-cover whistles for Ren Faires etc.

Swedish Espalering(sp?)or chip carving,if done shallow,can be done on your plastic fipple heads with an Exacto-Knife or a Scrimshaw point and filled with contrasting polyclay. Most fipple plastic is nylon or other high temp plastic and can take the 275 F degree heat polyclay needs to cure but “Baker Beware” on this. I’ve done this to several Generations and similar whistles and it works wonders to repair cracked rims if you bake a band around them.

Metal Leaf comes in many styles,such as Copper,Gold(real and fake) in 3 colors and Silver and can be applied to lightly sanded plastic whistles as well as metal ones. Once applied and burnished you can cover with clearcoat, but again,be careful of toneholes and labium ramps.

Do you have any suggestions? My intention was to incite other techniques here as well so please add to these!
Thomas Hastay.

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www.alpha-supply.com has coloring agents that can turn brass - green, brown or black. The brown is pretty nice - however the surface is somewhat delicate and should still be sealed with a lacquer.

I use on my brass high whistle what I call a “Frosted Shellac” finish. The whistle is heated in an oven and then the Parks brand shellac spray is sprayed indirectly onto the whistle. What I mean by indirect, the spray particles go into the air and fall down like overspray. The whistle is then reheated and resprayed. The process is repeated several time until the frosting effect is satisifactory.

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I’ve been thinking of going at mine with some really fine point permanent markers :astonished: Is there anything I won’t colour? I think this stems from a childish need to colour that was never allowed to flower… Yeah, right. I just wanna colour on something I shouldn’t colour on.

I may also take some silver or gold marker to it. Actually, plaid is looking real good too.
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