Hello,
I am a long time whistle player, and I am interested in getting in touch with some serious wooden whistle makers to possibly test a new wood product. We have had success using it for guitar necks and would like to now test it for making whistles.
Our wood has gone through a special heat treating process (thermal modification), which makes it more stable in humid conditions and less likely to move or crack due to changes in temperature and humidity.
If anyone knows a whistle maker who would like to test the wood for us, we would greatly appreciate being put in contact with this person. If interested please reply to this post, and we can talk further about getting in touch and sending you some sample pieces to test.
We are offering it in birds eye and curly maple as well as quartered plain maple. You can learn more about it at http://www.phillips-ice.com. Look for the information on Acadian Tempered Woods.
Hi Syn,
Thank you for your interest in Tempered Tone Woods! Would you send me a private message with your email address? Then I can pass it along to my dad and he can contact you.
I make whistles but probably not at the volumes you would be interested in. I’m always looking for new materials. I also make a lap guitars and would like a stable alternative to laminated woods.
There are already timber products, also maples by the way, that use a torrification process to heat treat the wood. At least one whistle maker that stops by here has used that wood, David O’Brien. https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/cp-whats-on-the-rack/72563/1
I’ve looked into torrified maple based on his posts here. Gibson and others have tried it for guitar parts mostly fingerboards. I’ve talked with a couple luthier friends about it as well. Haven’t talked to the folks up the road in Nazareth about it though. They’ve tried torrified spruce AFAIK. They usually have their finger on the pulse, so to speak.
And some other whistle makers will use stabilized woods by infusing various chemicals under vacuum and/or pressure. I dabble with that here.
Wax infusion has been used in Europe for decades to stabilize maples.
So I’d want to hear how your process is different from any of these currently known, what the long term results are and of course the costs relative to other appropriate and commonly accepted timbers.
The advantage of these processes as I see it is to make use of woods that are otherwise inappropriate for woodwind making, such as figured maples, which could be more readily available, should be less expensive, are not a common cause of allergies and are more sustainable varieties than the tropical exotic varieties commonly sought after by makers and players today.
The hard part might be getting the woodwind buying public to accept these less dense timbers since they are generally not regarded the right material in their natural form. You know, traditions and such. Not that Irish whistle playing has anything to do with traditions.
I read your web page and it does not really tell me much.
Our Tempered ToneWoods go through a system developed by the Fins. Sometimes it’s referred to as torrefied or thermally modification. We call it Tempering to differentiate us from the other guys. You know, the well tempered clavier.
Yes, companies like Gibson and Fender are using the same exact wood for neck blanks and fingerboards. They like it because it’s more stable and has different tonal characteristics than regular kiln dried lumber (we offer KD lumber too). They also like the way our figured woods (birds eye & curly maple) pops.
The only chemical added during the process is H2O. This is so after processing, the lumber has a target moisture content of ± 7%. We’re able to offer sustainably managed, domestic woods that otherwise probably wouldn’t be considered candidates for use by some luthiers and makers.
Send me a private e-mail message and we can fill in the blanks with more technical information.
I thought I’d post a pic of these puppies before they get sent back to Caryn for some road testing.
The pic doesn’t do justice to the way that light plays with the grain and changes as they turn, especially on the curly one. Probably the nicest looking whistles I have made.
More later.
Sorry, tours are heaven, but…
When you get world class whistle to try how do you part with them?
How do you tell the Mrs. that you absolutely must buy (several) new whistles?
Whistlers are exceeding lucky that the world’s best whistle are so relatively inexpensive, but still.
You don’t tell her a thing! If and when she reacts to an unfamiliar looking whistle you just go “oh this one? I’ve had it for ages, a friend has had it on long term loan, that’s why you have forgot about it/never seen it before.”
Amateurs!
Eventually those unfamiliar whistles will start building up, and she’ll catch on!
Better long-term solution- Find a wife/girlfriend who plays whistle!
Back to the topic- Carynice I am looking very forward to hear what you think of the whistles. If they are as good as the other whistles Erle makes, they should be fantastic!
I have a piece of each of those same woods in the works. So far, I like how the wood machines. They won’t need a stain like I usually put on maple to bring out the grain. They have a beautiful color and grain just as they are.
