I’m so excited, I can’t keep quiet any longer.
As you may know, StewySmoot’s been hounding me to tweak more Generation type whistles like the “Freeman Frankenwhistle” he mentions from time to time on this board. The one with the dog toothmarks that still plays good.
I’ve tried and tried, but without success, to replicate that whistle. The problem is, with that tweaking scheme, it’s trial and error on every whistle, and there’s no guarantee of a successful outcome. I’ve succeeded in creating six or seven tweaked Generation type whistles of that quality, but I’ve failed more times than I’ve succeeded.
Well, a week or so ago, he cornered me with an offer to supply whistles enough for me to do some serious R&D. They arrived a few days ago, and I’ve been burning the midnight oil.
On the first whistle, I made a breakthrough that may be the key to this puzzle.
The biggest problem with Generations, and most other Generation type whistles too, is that the soundblade is not positioned well. If you sight into the windway from the mouthpiece end, there’s too much space under the blade. In other words, the blade is too high inside the mouthpiece.
I’ve tried in the past to compensate for this by laminating a layer of plastic to the windway floor, but this has been very hit or miss, and I usually ended up having to laminate a new blade on top of the ramp. That’s a lot of work that must be done by trial and error on every whistle with no guarantee of success. Not an acceptable production process.
The breakthrough is, I found a way to laminate the correct thickness UNDER the blade inside the mouthpiece, so the ramp remains more or less intact except for resharpening to accomodate the additional material underneath. That creates a new blade edge in the correct position. It also maintains a flat, smooth surface under the ramp, which also may be important for the whistle’s playing well.
I’m using a suitable thickness of countertop laminate material for the additional blade thickness, which machines extremely well and glues well. It’s a much better blade material than the original whistlehead plastic.
Prototype production configuration whistlehead number one is a complete success. The next step is to repeat the process and see how consistent are the results. I’m optimistic, since the materials and processes are precise.
Prototype production configuration whistlehead number two has been glued and is setting up. I’m using a two part epoxy designed to bond with plastic, which is slow setting. Around ten o’clock, it will be hard enough to sharpen.
So far, no whistles have been sacrificed.
As I said, I’m very excited. If I can pull this off as I believe I can, it will be historic in the little world of pennywhistles. A production, consistently excellent tweaked Generation. But that’s getting ahead of things. Let’s hope that number two turns out as well as number one. Then the next step will be to do a small batch. Fingers still crossed. Wish me luck.
Best wishes,
Jerry
, I don’t suppose?