so i have just bought my first wooden whistle, and need some advice about proper care of the wood.
for example, can it crack from humidity, how and when should i polish/clean it, and anything i am not aware of already?
thanks for your help.
First and foremost, follow the maker’s instructions.
Second, swab it out after playing, or shake it out and store it vertically. You can make a swab out of a chopstick or thin dowel rod – split the end with a hacksaw or sharp knife, and put a ~3-6" square of cloth in this to swab out the whistle.
Third, store the whistle around 45-60% humidity. You don’t say where you are, but in the northern US, this usually means making a simple humidifier. This can be done for about $20 by buying a plastic (Rubbermaid, Tupperware, etc.) container, a cigar humidifier, and hygrometer. If the humidity goes below 40% you run a risk of cracking the whistle, if it goes above 60%, you run the risk of mold growth. The latter is considerably diminished if you take the whistle out daily, but is also easily combatted by leaving the vessel open for awhile till the humidity goes down.
Depending on the wood, it might need to be oiled. Again, consult the maker; some recommend almond oil, some commercial bore oil. An oily wood like blackwood doesn’t need it but a few times in the first year and maybe 1-2 times a year after that, a more porous wood like boxwood or pink ivory more like monthly.
One more really important thing is, if it’s new or hasn’t been played in awhile, break it in. Follow the maker’s instructions, or if not available, maybe 15 minutes twice a day for a few days, then gradually increase that to an hour at a time afer a few weeks.
Most importantly, enjoy it and play it.
thanks for your help charlie
i live in japan which is quite humid, comparable to say the great lakes states, i think
also, this whistle is used, so i have no instructions, but your tips were very helpful
for anyone else interested in this topic, i found this website, pretty much covering everything
http://www.bleazey.co.uk/flutecare.html
hey chas(or anybody out there)
here is the whistle, it doesn’t look like it has been oiled, i say that because it looks so light?
it is made from elderflower wood, which is a wood i know nothing about.
if i use oils, such as the almond oil, will it change the color of the wood?
what do you think?
thanks again
~pemba
Is that one of those Czech whistles made by a shepherd? I have one and think it’s terrific.
Don’t stress over wooden whistle care. Keep it away from extreme heat. Don’t put it in your back pocket and then sit on it. Oil it once or twice per year.
I live in upstate New York with very dry heat in the winter, high humidity in the summer, and I have NEVER humidified any of the wooden whistles that I make and own. Never had one crack either once it’s finished.
yeah, it is one of those czech shepherd whistles
i am really excited about this one
tell me more about what you think of it, if you don’t mind…
so as far as care goes, don’t worry too much about it, but oil it once or twice?
that sounds alot less stressful…
have you oiled this whistle, and if so, what kind of oil did you use?
thanks for everything
peace
~p
Here is one long thread I remember about similar whistles from a few years back. It’s old and many of the links to photos have unfortunately expired.
https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/more-about-this-lovely-instrument-later/19847/1
and another
thanks for posting those threads, it was nice to see pictures of the maker and hear others thoughts on this whistle…
i snatched this up super quick from irishflutestore.com
i really like this whistle
the fipple is really small, actually the whistle is a lot smaller and lighter than i thought it would be
so it is taking some getting used to, but the tone is by far the best i have ever heard or played, really
you can just blow forever and it doesn’t waver, always in tune with a nice crisp, yet woody sound, but not like a flute, sounds like a real whistle
it is slightly bent, but you can see that he carved it by hand, which i really dig
just knowing that someone hand carved this thing in the mountains in a house he also built by hand and that no electricity touched my whistle, sort of gives it this magic power, the vibe when i hold it is way different than a piece of tin rolled in a factory somewhere…
if you can get a hold of one of these, i think you will like it…
the response is quick too, rolling and cutting is also taking some getting used to because it is faster than other whistles, i mean i have to be quicker to pull it off properly, a lot more snap is needed
great whistle and the maker is a vibe!
peace to all
~p
You just answered your own question about why I love my shepherd whistle. As an instrument maker, I find it inspiring and more than a bit humbling to see what this fellow can make with the simplest of materials and tools.
Mine is a low F and it has a gorgeous, haunting quality.
HEy Pemba .. mmm lurve that Elder - you know, they use Elder because the branches are already hollow - they are whistles like fruit!! The Elder is a whistle tree! wooHoo!
So what you do is this - (damn I’m just a bit of common pina radiata - no help for me!)
So what you do with the Elder (a very old middle-Asia/Europe tree) is this:
Keep the water out of it - when you play, the water vapor in the breath condenses as is leaves teh windway - the rapid decompression out of the beak makes all the moisture precipitate as it expands and it all starts trikling down the tube.
Water going into grain can make it expand rapidly which can stres it til it cracks .. Elder is not so worried by this.
But all wood gets worried when water evaporates from the grain - it makes us shrink .. eeeek!! like Sooo tight!! .. and we crack-up from the tickle of it all!!
Larfing wood is bad for music 
So oil us!! so the water don’t get in and th water don’t get out!!
And if we got water in us - get it out before it sinks-in!!
We like our bit of water - but we get cracked up when it leaves us and we aint no party room for crowds of water who want to hang round for a few hours then go off to the Hyatt for drinks later (know what I mean?).
So get all that fly-by-night yuppy water away from us (we too polite to say anything).
Get a commmon bamboo shish-kebab skewar and a strip of cloth (non abrasive). put a split in the skewar, wedge the cloth and wind it round to a roll that makes a tight fit - trim it, and swab-out all that blow-in water - we don’t like it,. It just comes in yo9ur breath coz you humans are soooo wet!!
Anyhooz, the oil you want with Elder is Wallnut - you caint get wallnut oil anywhere’s except out of a wallnut - so you get a bunch of wallnuts - put them in a cloth and pound the carp out of them with a rolling pin untill the cloth is dripping with oil - then you cut a strip, and put it on yer skewar and wind all that oil up the inside of the Elder tube - Elders grow with wallnuts in the old world - they lerve each other. And they take care of each other .. I’m a stick - beleive me!!!
And .. ah yeah .. oil us - it makes us dark as we suck in the last of our centuries-long few breaths of the long dark journey from being a tree, to being a whistle - play us in dark and enduring tunes - this is our imortality - only you can do that - we are just sticks. With you?? there is no death.
Stick, you crack me up…
When you do decide to oil a wooden whistle, give it a day or so to dry out first. No sense in keeping that moisture in the wood.