(Added a post to describe the final result.)
I have a nice little piece of bamboo, no joints, quite straight, at least 25-30 years old, 16.5" long, about 5/8" wide at one end, and 3/4" at the other.
Since I no longer have any need for a blowgun (really, I don’t), I thought that I should try to find someone who would be willing to take a shot at making it into a whistle.
The wide end might need to have about a half inch or so chopped off, since it has an internal bevel from its days as a blowgun. I’d try it myself, but have neither the time nor the tools.
Anyone want to quote a price? If it turns out badly, I might still be willing to pay something, depending on how much work is done before it’s totally destroyed.
PM or email is fine, if you don’t want to discuss it here.
my wild guess is that mack would do an amazing job and love the challenge.
a better option may be to make it into a flute. after all, bamboo, hollow,fashioning a bamboo fipple would not be easy. thus my thought of mack- he will make a magic top for your bamboo body.
re flute: olwell charges less than 100 bucks to make one with his bamboo. maybe he will do it. but you will have to get in line.
Those were the outer diameters. It’s tricky to measure the inner diameter, because of the inner bevels at each end, but it appears to be about 7/16" at both ends. In other words, the wide end seems to have thicker walls. The inner diameter of the narrow end is marginally narrower, though, judging by how far I can stick my little finger into it.
I’d be happy with any key, though it might as well be as low as possible, just to waste as little material as possible.
Dang it, Mike. A blowgun would have been perfect for the next Chiff Gathering. We could have snuck around and had a good laugh. “Oh my, did one of those pesky wasps get you, too?” (There are a couple of people I had in mind.)
Tony
I bet that one of the higher-key (and, thus, smaller diameter) flutes would work, though aiming while pretending to play might take a bit of practice.
I made a nice blowgun out of a couple of heavy cardboard FAX paper rollers taped together, using straightened paper clips with mailing label stabilizer cones for darts. I was going for distance across the office, and almost took out our Quality Assurance Manager when he poked his head up from behind a cubical divider at the last moment. (You can use a paper punch to clip a nice, sharp point on a paper clip.)
