Found and old piece of hexagon tubing in my garage. It came from a floor lamp. I thought “this would make a real cool whistle if it would work”. Well it does!
Keyed in A. The tone is a little too airy but it works and is pretty well in tune. Some notes are still a wee bit flat but I will tweak it as I go.
Cool piece of work you’ve done there.
Right, whistles do not have to be round. You just need to contain the air column.
In fact, it is hip to be square.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ranjit/12711872143/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4-ndIBbzHI
Of course, Daniel Bingamon has tried it all … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5oiLaID93g
And on a more (or less) artistic level … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC7TSM3oeN4
You’ll know that you’ve got it bad when every pipe and hollow object you look at can be seen of as a potential whistle.
Feadoggie
Yeah. I accidentally ran over my aluminum framed fishin net with the lawnmower. As I was walking the remains to the garbage I thought “a piece of this frame might make a cool little whistle.” So on my work bench it sits. 
Well it sounds like you are on your way down the slippery slope. There’s no cure I am afraid. At least I have not discovered one. Just make more whistles.
Have fun.
Feadoggie
Very nice !!
How is the finger-action, closing on a “flat” facet, rather than a round tube ?
trill
The flat surface is comfortable to play. easy to close the holes. It is just a little more airy than I would like. I’m going to fool around with the airway and see if I can improve it. I also need to clean it up and paint it. At least the fipple area. It is steel and leaves a metallic taste.
Right, whistles do not have to be round. You just need to contain the air column.
Although sharp edges, square corners and turbulence are things that require consideration.
You’ll know that you’ve got it bad when every pipe and hollow object you look at can be seen of as a potential whistle.
Especially when the tubes are large drain pipes!
Yep. And yet organ builders have been making such things as square whistles for a thousand years or more…
The whistlesmith can either fear turbulence or work out a way for it to give musical shape to the sound.
Overton! 
By the way, I like the appearance of that octagonal whistle!
Cheers
The whistlesmith can either fear turbulence or work out a way for it to give musical shape to the sound.
And that why I said it needs consideration, at a minimum.
Arguably the air column inside an organ pipe playing the one note differs a bit in it’s response to one that is required to play a scale of two octaves so there are different things to consider.
Yep! I wasn’t disagreeing with you at all! Just noting that master craftsmen have been “considering” the problems of square whistles and how to make them sound beautiful for a very long time!
And yes, the tone holes are things that organ builders don’t generally have to worry about at all!
Cheers
…nor do they need holes.
…or a fipple.
…or straight.
…or even a melody.
…and did you know a whistle with no holes will play all the notes a bugle does?
Neat! You can get neat effects by blowing through a flexible microphone gooseneck – sans microphone & wire, of course!
Yep – all wind instruments have the ability to play a characteristic series of partials. Some more than others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-ZLgsq_nSg
On most whistles I can reliably get the first four or maybe five: D d a d’ f#‘. Not much use for bugle calls, which would generally require partials 3 through 6. Though on your narrow bore d, I can get one or two higher than that, and without piercing eardrums and shattering windows! Of course, on the whistle we can cheat by venting one or more ‘octave keys’ to help the higher partials sing more clearly: that f#’ requires (at least on the whistles I tried) three ‘octave keys’ to be vented: 1, 2 & 4. No such help on the bugle, which is why its range is so limited.
Once you get over to the french horn or the baroque trumpet, you’re playing among the eighth through 16th partials, and even higher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa2vzx-aNrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPl2LUq-vpw
Cheers
There’s a Boehm flute maker who creates flutes with square tone holes: http://lopatinflutes.com/SquareONE.htm
That looks very nice. That’s a whistle to show off for sure.
what they do need:
a really good player with a great attitude
a maker that will try anything
with next to nothing for material
round, square, oblong, straight or crooked
just as long as it’s hollow
unless he’s got wood
I have a tapered bore high D with a square cross section a guy gave me at a flea market. He gave me one because I was the first guy he heard get a tune out of it. He was making them to sell but had no idea it was possibly useful as an instrument. Will post a photo when my camera is repaired.
I like that whistle!
Is there any easy (or at least reasonably accurate) way of knowing where the tone holes should go?