Wicked Good Inside Scoop on Whistles!

In making urns, I have used both red cedar which has the smell of a lead pencil when cut and Port Orford cedar from the west coast which has a delightful perfume smell like flowers. Port Orford is hard to obtain in large size and in extra clear grades. Ten years ago I purchased a large lot of this cedar as a high grade lot to make urns from. This cedar was stored inside an insulated tractor trailer and eventually lost most of its moisture and is very dry and straight grained. Port Orford is so waterproof that you can build a boat from it, never paint it and the boat will survive salt water and last for a hundred years!

This is a Port Orford Cedar creation I call The Floating Amphora that you may find interesting. The vessel still retains its wonderful aroma after many years

Wooden whistles are always interesting. I have been involved in wood turning and making urns and artistic pieces on the lathe for over forty years. Because I know a bit about wood and its inherent problems, I have rethought the manufacture of whistles from this material. Some of the opinions I had originally on using wood can be balanced by using new techniques in preparing the wood and replacing the water content even in seasoned and aged wood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Native Americans basically got it right when they made flutes from cedar which is inherently waterproof due to its high oil content. Lightning struck cedar is the cedar of choice for many makers of these flutes and the crystallizing effect does have a bearing on the instrument. Lightning struck cedar has been made harder than regular cedar and therefore is easier to work than regular cedars that tend to be very soft.

A new way to manufacture wooden whistles along with templates for the design has been developed. This new design whistle is unique and new to whistle making and makes a visually striking instrument. Whistles that I made from Port Orford cedar over the summer, have a lovely sound and are extremely durable. They do not acquire moisture from saliva and will not clog. Because this cedar has been properly aged, it is feather light in weight and the color is clear to a slightly golden color with a very nice grain.

How of many of these whistles will be available for sale? The first one hundred have already been purchased by a private collector on a ship as ready basis. It will be some time before any consideration to further production can be taken into account. Having a benefactor for the WhistleSmith is a very exciting development!

I do have an extensive amount of information on processing wood for turning and some neat tricks for processing raw wood to product that can be a lot of help to anyone who is interested in pursuing this area.

I will be posting individual items on the WhistleSmith News on each of the new developments as things proceed in the next few weeks. Be sure to sign up for the News Letter where you can get immediate updates. I promise you will be entertained by some unique new designs. You never know, The Magic Whistle may show up and you wouldn’t want to miss that!

 

In the past six month, I have had the privilege to talk and e-mail to dozens of folks who have purchased WhistleSmith whistles and flutes and have received input that is impossible to obtain any other way.

As I have written up the e-mails for posting, there have been some areas that bear listing as a reference for further development. Probably the first item to be taken care of is the matter of whistle colors. White whistles have a number of things going for them and although it might be repetitive, I’m going list them right now.

1. White whistles and flutes do not require the extra work in masking and painting and therefore cost less.
2. White whistles are easy to see if they are misplaced when camping and outside when camping.
3. White whistles play better under very hot conditions and draw very little heat.
4. White whistles are easier for children to maintain because you can see when they need cleaning.

The problem is that folks like color on their whistles and how many of each color whistle or flute do you need to stock and what colors do you need to have on hand? Over the past two years, I have narrowed the color selection down to one that works for almost everyone. Jet Black, Bright Red, Dark Green, Deep Maroon, Dark Brown and Cornflower Blue will still be the major colors that are always offered. Navy Blue,Magenta, Rose Pink, and Orchid Purple will also be offered as additional colors that appeal to a large group of whistlers. Silver striping will be standard on all white whistles and the decals on all whistles have been resized and updated to give a more uniform look.

For those folks that want a colored whistle in a model that has previously only been made in white, I am offering a custom paint package. Buy your whistle and then purchase the paint package in the color you wish your whistle to be finished in. Silver striping and pewter silver stippling will be included at no extra charge. The price for the paint package will be posted with a full description on both eBay and this website with Buy It Now information. This option will be extra nice if you are purchasing whistles as sets and want a matching color combination on the entire group.

Before I get a dozen or so calls on the subject...The prototype whistles I am going to mention next will not be for sale on eBay or anyplace else. Most will never see production, but they will all be available for study along with information on how they were made. Prototypes are part of the archive of whistles and flutes that are the property of WhistleSmith to be preserved and studied for future changes or improvements to the product line. WhistleSmith does not sell seconds, prototypes, or whistles with defects on eBay or anywhere else.

I made four dozen completely new design prototype whistles in various materials to test for ideas that might make it into a production whistle. The idea was to find out as much as possible about these materials, how they work for different applications and document the material as far as pluses and minuses on machining, finish, sound and of course, durability. All this information is going to be available at the workshop this summer and I’m sure it will be enlightening to everyone attending. At no point in history have there been as many materials (both man made and natural) available to a whistlesmith as there are today.

Aluminum in various finishes has been a predominant material in testing. Since I obtained the samples and test material from a major manufacturer of extruded aluminum, I have been able to proceed with putting together a complete set of prototypes whistles. These whistles are a new concept design and are exceptional in appearance. Aluminum passes most tests for durability(except bending and denting), is easily machined and can be finished in a variety of ways. Right now, aluminum seems to be cost effective in small size whistles and a bit more costly in the larger whistles. Aluminum is most efficient at dissipating heat and there is where a major problem lays. Below 68 degrees, which is a warm temperature, large bore aluminum whistles such a the Low D play too cold and collect condensation in the bore. No matter how hard they are played, they stay much too cool to be practical if played outdoors and in cold weather. One of my testers after playing the Low D in aluminum in the barn on a cool day, suggested we could wrap the whistle in insulation foam to take care of that problem. I can only hope he was just joking. Small bore aluminum whistles seem to be fine and play well down to about 65 degrees (after which they get noticeably flat).

Small bore prototypes are finished and no further development is necessary at this point. However, I am not going to recommend aluminum for outdoors cold weather playing. Aluminum makes a very nice concert type whistle where temperature is not a problem. Aluminum scratches and nicks easily under hard use, and requires the owner to treat polished aluminum whistles with care. I have a very good source for coated aluminum tubing that promises to be much tougher to scratch and seems (at this point in time) to be more suited for whistle production. I am doing a complete data base on aluminum and finishes. Information on my conclusions and sources will be available on request to anyone interested in this area of whistle development when information is compiled and complete.

Whistling in the Wind at St Froid Lake

This fall, I had the privilege to be invited to Cry of the Lost Hunter Campground for Sunday dinner with Frances Cushman and her daughter Ann. Located on St. Froid Lake at Quimby, Maine ,the campground was home to my boys and Nadiene and I in the summer for many years.

Here I am playing away in an extremely cold and stiff wind. Whistle worked great!

Owen and Frances Cushman created the campground from an undeveloped piece of shoreline property over a long period of time. Originally the campground was full of tents and folks with trailers in the summer, but now most of the occupants are local people that enjoy being there all summer and have settled in with larger trailers that stay all year long.
It was a really bad day weather wise when we left Presque Isle and the wind was up even worse by the time we had driven the sixty miles up to the lake. Even though it had been quite a few years since we had been to the campground, everything looked pretty much as we had left it on our last visit. Mother Nature seems to maintain things at a pretty nice level if she doesn’t get stressed and the fall foliage was at its best even if the day was dark and wet.
We had a nice long visit at the big log cabin where Frances lives in the summer and of course a tour of the property and a chance to see some folks we knew who were getting in the last visit to camp for the season.
After a leisurely dinner with all the good things that go with homemade cooking and big piece of raspberry pie, I decided the rain had let up sufficiently to go for a walk. The wind was still blowing at about twenty five miles an hour and the shore was getting hit with some big waves from the whitecaps out on the main part of the lake. Nadiene picked up her camera and came along with me as I grabbed my whistle from the Mazda and headed for the beach.
I had been testing the new Traveler whistle in A and thought it would be a real test to be able to play it outdoors under some tough conditions. Frances, Ann and our friend Diane Barnes stayed on the porch to see how the whistle sounded and how far away they would be able to hear it against the wind.
We wandered up the beach and I played the Dance of the Frenzied Turkeys all the way. Nadiene took a bunch of pictures of the cabins along the way and was the on site expert to attest to the playability and staying power of the little whistle against the wind. It was great fun and there were several places that I would have played for a while, but everything was pretty wet and the weather held off just long enough to get in a good walk.
The girls back at camp said they could hear me playing until we were completely out of sight which I found surprising as the wind really started to blow. The Traveler played without a hitch. No wind kill even though I did a full 360 degree in slow motion and the wind was very strong. This is a very pleasant whistle to play and the more I play it the better I like the Key of A. After getting back to camp I gave everyone a short concert of some of my tunes that I’ve been working on and then it was time to head for home.
We all had a great day and got home just before dark. You try to miss the moose and driving in the dark is not a good idea in the fall of the year. Later in the evening , a tremendous gust of air came down out of Canada and the next morning the color was gone as the leaves blew off the trees. You could say we got in the last nice day of the fall season and had a chance to whistle our way through it in style!

Comments on White Whistles and Where the Whistlers are Whistling!

Here is an excerpt from John Hughes long letter on some of his observations on whistle color(especially white instruments) and other interesting whistle observations. I found this letter to have several interesting points and I will add them to the revue on the Low whistles as soon as I can.

“There are several advantages to owning a white instrument.
I find that students keep these instruments cleaner and ready to play, because dirt shows up more readily on a white instrument and it looks either clean and white or it looks dirty. Case closed.
A white instrument plays cooler in summer heat and stays in tune better when exposed to direct sunlight. I make it a point to instruct students to place their instruments out of the sunlight when not playing and to remove them from auto windows when traveling. Leaving any instrument in the direct sun, whether it is plastic or wood is not a good idea and can cause them to warp or even split. Here in the south, you can get a burn from a metal mouthpiece left in the sun and you won’t soon forget that!

You can find a white instrument (even if it is only the mouthpiece that’s white) easier when laid down. Black and dark brown instruments tend to get lost and at best are hard to find. I have searched for hours over the years trying to find lost instruments that were often right beside me. Outdoors events with a fife and drum corps are always a matter of someone losing their fife or drumsticks by laying them down on the ground and leaving them behind. I recommend dipping your drumstick ends in some white paint so they show up!

White instruments never need more than a good cleaning and they look like new. Paint, coatings, polished aluminum and even chrome have issues after being handled a lot. Brass looks okay when everyone polishes, but it looks terrible in a group if even one person prefers to have their instrument have a patina. Patina just means unkept and not polished in a band.
I appreciated the time you spent on the phone with me discussing the Fife & Pail concept. Will get back to you as soon as the Town has a chance to discuss the matter and I believe we will go with the idea because the kids need an activity like this that could be done all year round.”

Several folks have written about where they play their whistle. I would publish their letters complete, but I always ask if it is okay first and that takes a lot of time. If you want something posted during the month, please remember to state that it is okay to publish your letter in its entire form.

A lot of people play their whistle at funerals and wakes. Out of respect for the departed and also because there are not enough pipers around. I often remark that the pipers of our land must be tired out from piping at funerals, never mind all the parades they have to attend. I know that I hear more people say they have heard someone playing the whistle at a funeral than I have ever heard before. If you have not played for a funeral, you better practice outdoors under real conditions before you show up for your first performance. The wind can make your music go away if you have the wrong whistle in your hands.
At least one person is financing their college by playing whistle at dedications, funerals, and other events. What better incentive to practice than to have your own business that furnishes a wonderful service to the community as well.

Many folks have found the wonders of echoes in playing their whistle. The echo coming back over at lake, the way the whistle sounds coming back from heavy woods over an open field, and the sounds you get in an open alley when it is quiet on a Sunday morning where all mentioned in the past month.

The amount of phone calls discussing various types of music and folks with ideas on whistle music in general has been very interesting. The whistle is being played in every type of music imaginable. Delta Blues, reggae, calypso, traditional, blues, and many more have been mentioned lately.

Many of the calls pertained to ideas that individuals have for new or different variations on the whistle. If you have ideas for an instrument don’t hesitate to call and discuss your idea. The data base information is getting larger every month and an answer to one of your questions may be available. Really secret projects will stay secret...that’s why I’m in Maine on top of a ridge.

More people than ever are playing their whistles during the Holidays! Some players are in symphony productions, some in stage shows and musicals and the whistle will be played with choirs and caroling on Christmas eve this year according to the folks ordering new whistles on the phone and over the website. I know there have been a lot of whistles ordered in green and red which I think is an indication of what they will be used for. I think this is just great! “The More the Merrier” as the old saying goes.