A BASKET OF THUMBRINGS FOR FALL

A basketful of thumbrings would hardly seem an exciting event, but after hand making this basketful I felt really grateful to be finished for a while. Actually, I recently did a marathon event of thumbring making for a client that required four hundred in a hurry and almost did my right hand in for good. These little beauties require a lot of hand work and I have improved the methods used in the process several times. The latest improvement has been to cross peen the rivets for a very tight fit and extra smooth interior on the ring section. A blacksmith of some 50 years of ability explained the set up for doing horse harness rivets on leather to me and it applies perfectly to making another improvement to the thumbring.

UPDATE ON CLEANING YOUR WHISTLE

So many e-mailers wanted a picture of the cleaning setup I had mentioned this spring that I decided to post a picture of my top secret whistle cleaning apparatus. The woolen buff is for a 12 gauge shotgun(fits low whistles with a big bore) and will last a long time. A 410 size buff fits small diameter bore whistles.

You can use any type of drill, but cordless is great if you already own one. Be sure the drill is in tighten mode when you clean with it or the buff will unscrew and be left in the whistle. Several buffing sessions will improve the sound of any kind of whistle because the buffing head smooths the instrument inside and dries up the water.

Doing this type of buffing is not the same as using a clarinet style bore wiper, because the buff generates heat while it is turning and the heat and rotation takes out residue and polishes the inside of the instrument. If you find that your instrument wets up easily in high humidity conditions, dry silicon spray available in hardware and automotive stores can be wiped into the bore after it has been cleaned and then buffed again to produce a finish that will absolutely shed water.

Moisture in the bore will deaden sound quickly if conditions are humid because saliva is not plain water and the surface tension inside the bore makes it collect as a coating on the walls of the instrument. Silicon when buffed onto the surface makes surface tension minimal and improves the instruments internal vibration so you get more volume without having to increase the air flow.

A GREAT TIP!... from my wife Nadiene

While putting together parts for some whistles the other week, I managed to get a body completely stuck in a tuning slide. I tried as hard as I could to twist the two pieces apart, but could not budge them at all. After contemplating the problem, I was about to put the pieces in the vise when my wife, Nadiene walked through the door and wanted to know what all the fuss was about. I showed her the stuck parts and vowed there was no way they were going to come apart. "Wait just a minute and I'll be right back" she said and promptly left.

In a minute she was back and passed me a rubber disc jar opener. "You should know this works on about everything in the kitchen, even stuck canning jar covers."

Well, behind every good Whistlesmith is a good woman!

A rubber disc jar opener is the best thing in the entire world to take a stuck whistle apart with. I am now sporting three in various colors so they are easy to find in the shop. A whistle is just plain hard to grab and a vise will ruin the barrel on your whistle in an instant. These jar openers are really a sweet deal to have in your whistle bag and you won't hurt your hands when you use one.

Got an old whistle and want to take the head off the tone body? A rubber jar opener after a good soak in boiling water will definitely do the job.