This is a simple way to make an excellent cleaning tool for all size whistles. The materials are a 3/16" wooden dowel and a long strip of cotton cloth.

The 3/16" wooden dowel costs $.78 cents at our local Lowes and is 48" long. You will have plenty of material to make two extra long cleaning rods that will fit up to a Low D whistle.

I use a white 100% cotton cleaning towel and tear it into 2" strips the long length of the towel.

One towel is enough to last a long time, so you can be neighborly and share with a friend if you like. If you have an old pillow case, that will work well and it can be any color you have on hand.

I recommend 100% cotton because you will not get lint when you buff the bore of the whistle coming off and getting into the fingerholes and tuning joint.

You will need to cut the slot in the end of the dowel with a sharp, fine tooth saw. I use the bandsaw to do the slot, but you can use a craft saw, coping saw, scroll saw or perhaps a neighbor might cut the slot for you. If you do not wish to cut a slot (I like the slot so I can change the cloth often), you can use a dab of Elmer's Glue and wrap your cloth around the dowel and glue it on.

Wrap the cloth smoothly down the dowel by turning to the right with the dowel and feeding the cloth flat and pulling to the bottom of the dowel. Wrap enough cloth around the dowel so that it fits nicely into the bore of your whistle and let the tail end of the cloth pull down to the end of the dowel. Do not make the cloth fit too tightly or it can make a plug of cloth and be hard to remove.

The tail end of the cloth should be left loose and hang outside the whistle so you can pull the cloth out of the whistle if it should come unattached from the cleaning end of the dowel.

When cleaning and drying your whistle, you can push and pull the rod back and forth or using both hands, spin it in the whistle bore.

If you want to use your electric drill, put the drill in forward mode (the same direction you would use to drill a hole with a drill bit) and push and pull back and forth to buff the whistle bore.

If you forget and buff with the drill in reverse, the cloth will unwind and probably come off the dowel. This means you will have to pull on the tail end of the cloth and retrieve your buffing cloth out of the whistle bore. Rewind your dowel and you will be back in business.

You cannot hurt your whistle by buffing the whistle bore. The more times you buff, the smoother the bore will become and the better it will play.