New Building Well Under Way!

Our original barn was built by Jerry Michaud back in 1989 and was a great piece of work. Jerry, his wife Barb and his brother Michael built the barn in just two weeks and everyone marvelled back then on how quick and well built the barn was.

When Nadiene and I had to pick a builder for the new barn, we called Jerry again and we were lucky enough to get him to come over and get things going. Over the weekend, we decided that a "salt box" three bay building would look good, be extremely strong under adverse conditions and be cost effective in design. We gave Jerry the heads up on the building and he finished up the details and got materials organized and on site to start the following week.

The weather warmed up and Jerry and brother Michael arrived and soon got the building underway. Even with all the snow on the ground, the building went up on the pad at a record pace. It was so warm the second day, that Jerry got rid of his shirt despite the snowy background and Mike managed to sunburn his head.

This week, Jerry's son Derek had the week off from school, so we have a second generation builder helping out and the building is going great as you can see from the photos! I checked the acoustics today with a few tunes on my Low D and this building sounds as good as the old barn and as you know, that was Acoustically Perfect!

Cleanup photos of the Acoustically Perfect Barn

This collage of photos shows the cleanup from the barn collapse. Our neighbors, Gerald Easler and his son Ed did the complete cleanup of the barn starting as soon as the blizzard calmed down enough to allow access to the site. They opened up the driveway with the large payloader to make room for the skidder to reach the barn and lift out the contents and remove the standing walls. The contents including the vehicles were carefully sorted out of the snow and set aside for storage and the standing walls were taken down and recycled to another site. All material and items in the barn were recycled and saved and the entire site was carefully cleaned despite the extremely cold and windy conditions.

When Gerald and Ed finished, the site was ready to accept the builders for our new building. They did a great job and accomplished it in record time. Thanks Gerald and Ed for turning a disaster into an unforgettable experience with you wonderful attitude and cheerful dispostions while doing a very tough job!

New Snow Record! Blizzard Hits! Acoustically Perfect Barn Falls!

The Snow Record for Maine had stood since 1955 at 181 inches. As I had mentioned earlier this winter, I was pretty sure it would be broken and it has been shattered by the last snowfall which moved the winter total to 185.7 inches. It is just March 23rd and we have a very good chance of moving the record up to 200 inches and even more by the end of snowfall in the month of April.

Here is a photo of Nadiene and the pugs in front of the downstairs entrance to the art department. We have no more room to pile snow and really need a thaw right now!

Many buildings large and small are in danger of collapsing as everyone is struggling to remove snow from rooftops all over the Aroostook County area of Northern Maine. As you can imagine, there is very little space left to pile snow and driveways and roads are becoming very dangerous and narrow to drive on.

On the first day of spring, March 19th, a blizzard alert was posted and we were hit with a foot of heavy wet ice and hail followed by a blizzard and heavy winds. Barns with animals inside collapsed and left beef cows and horses outside in the subzero winds with no protection. Many animals were buried under the barn they were in and still more have frozen outside. Every effort has been made to save the animals, but many are stranded in areas away from main roads and cannot be reach quickly.

Many commercial buildings have collapsed and private homes have had to be abandoned for a safer place, because the ice is frozen like granite to the roofs and the weight is too heavy for the buildings to remain safe. Camps at St.Froid Lake are reported to have snow in excess of twelve feet on top of them and there is no access to them until the weather breaks.

Nadiene and I were fast asleep with the pugs when the blizzard moved in and had no idea that it was like a tornado outside. The house is heavily insulated and almost sound proof to outside noise, so we had no inkling of what was transpiring in the dooryard.

The Acoustically Perfect Barn was hit by a heavy wind shear in the peak of the building due to high snow banks all around it. Apparently the gable end in the back cracked on the peak seam and started a chain reaction that eventually pushed the front of the barn out. When I took a look out the upstairs window in the morning, the barn was down and laying flat on its face. The blizzard and snow were starting to fill up the center of the barn and the ridge pole was resting on the tops of the Mazda and Nissan SUVs. The Bass Tracker boat was completely smashed and a piece of beam was down and laying across the Kioti diesel. Most of the woodworking equipment was completely destroyed including a large cabinet saw and the 21" bandsaw.

We are very lucky there was no fire and I was able to get the power shut off in the building (by reaching through what was left of the front wall) and tripping the circuit breaker. We got in a call to the insurance agent and a couple of friends before our neighbors started to call and show up. Marilee Smith called first and said she was calling her brother Carl Winslow to plow out the driveway and then she would be down. Sure enough, Carl was there in ten minutes with a plow and got the driveway open and right behind came Marilee to the rescue! She stayed all day and helped Nadiene do phone calls,get a rental vehicle, and do the mail and errands. We even shipped a couple of whistles that were due to go!

The roads were all but impassable, but neighbors showed up to see what they could do and by evening we had even located someone to take down the rest of the barn before it got any more dangerous. Marilee's husband Sid, had snow blown the driveway five or six times until it finally went into a stage of submission. It sure isn't pleasant to have a disaster happen, but it is really great to have good neighbors that show up to help.

The past two days, many folks have called to lament the passing of the Acoustically Perfect Barn and it will be sadly missed as it was a true Stradivarius of buildings. We will be making arrangements to have a Bar- B- Q on the slab when the weather gets warm and the mess gets cleaned up!

Here is a collage of photos to give you an idea of what the blizzard dished up! The Weather Channel has never has mentioned this storm or any other storms in Northern Maine in recent memory. This area would be declared a disaster area if this storm had happened in any other part of the country. Oh yeah! We are due for a big North Easter storm by Wednesday with another foot of snow.

Measuring Up With A Wicked Good Caliper

While going through GarrettWade.com looking for another useful tool or two, I found this giant set of Wicked Good Vernier Calipers (invented by Pierre Vernier, France,1639 for all you history buffs) listed in the woodworking tools. In the whistle shop, everything gets measured and measured and measured...so I was really excited to find this oversize tool. Here is their description and specifications for the calipers.

"Giant 24" Vernier Caliper, a splendid tool, & easily manageable despite its size
When we first discovered this, we were awestruck. There's just no other word to describe the feeling. It seems such an oddly outsized tool, yet take it up in your hand and you will think of a thousand times you could have used just such a useful measuring device. Virtually identical to a machinist's steel caliper, this one is made of aluminum, so it is easily manageable despite it's large size. A terrific find, and irresistible at this price. You'll want one just to watch your friends gawk.
Capacity: 24" long with a 2-3/4" deep jaw. Graduated in inches and millimeters, outside reading only. The Vernier scale reads in 1/128" and 0.05mm."

 

This is the perfect tool to do repeat measuring and checking parts for size. I am really impressed with all the things it is useful for, like checking board width and thickness in the wood shop, the distance on sound hole to whistle butt to check initial tuning and the list can go on and on. You will enjoy how light and easy to set these calipers are. Quick measurements require using only one hand to set and hold the slide when checking several measurement on your project. You can purchase this tool without having to take a loan out on your house...$29.95 is a great bargain.

Here I am checking the length of a Low F to make sure there is a good allowance for tuning up and down. The calipers do this job well and are extremely accurate. The whistles in the top row on the wall are on lengths of slide whistle rods that were too short to use and the whistles hanging are in clips made from left over thumb ring parts. Waste not, want not...keep America green!

Wicked Good Magnetic V Block

Originally I made the tuning slide on a wooden jig in the drill press, not unlike the setup shown in the photo. The slide requires the bore of the piece of pipe to be cut to a slide fit about two thirds of the way in the pipe. This bore must be very straight with the pipe, cleanly cut, and most importantly, easy to do, because every Low D has to have one. The original jig I used was clever, but slow to load and cranky to get set up and cutting accurately.

When I discovered a magnetic V block in the Grizzly catalog, I got the idea it would be great to set up for doing drilling jobs like the tuning slide. The V block has a switch that turns the magnet on and off and you can set the block on the drill press table or on a slide vise like I show in the photo. The block will not move once the switch is turned on, so you can also use it for a stop or for measuring lengths of cut pieces on your table saw. It is a very handy gadget and Grizzly sells them for about $8. in the catalog. I probably sound like I work for Grizzly, but after looking for stuff everywhere, they usually have it in stock for a good price.

I set the V block on center in the slide vise and align the piece to be drilled with the laser so the drill is true to the bore. The slide vise pushes the pipe into the V block and self centers it into the V. This is a fast and accurate way to drill or ream pipe and it sets up fast!

Try a magnetic V block and speed up the setup on your next job!

Make You Wood Lathe into a Wicked Good Machine Lathe for $100.

There are three full sized wood lathes in the shop. They all have a long history going back to about 1940 and I obtained them when they had been replaced by newer equipment. The Powermatic in the picture was made from two lathes that had been junked by a school department. After replacing the motor and getting some bits and pieces that were missing, the lathe runs like new. I use it to turn all types of wooden bowls, urns and fishing plugs and it is a very nice machine to work on.

I needed to turn down the plug material for the whistle mouthpieces so they would fit precisely and it is not practical to do fine tolerance work like this on a wood lathe. I needed a machine lathe to do the job and a good one costs around three grand and change to start. So after thinking about the difference between the two machines, I came to the conclusion there wasn't a huge difference in the lathes for what I needed to do and I decided to mount a slide vise on the lathe and cut the plugs using the equipment I had on hand.

Before I could get everything in place, I made a trip to Boston to visit Jay C. and family and we went to the Rockler Store in Cambridge to pick up some router bits. My long time friend Woody was in house and I discussed my idea about the slide vise being used on the wood lathe. He thought the idea was a good one and mentioned it would be a nice way to turn writing pens and handles that need long straight cuts.

I originally thought I would use one of the Bitmoore slide vises, but I had a Shop Fox from Grizzly that was a little shorter in height and fit the lathe better. After mounting the vise and adjusting the travel and alignment, I can turn six inch sections of rod within .002" tolerances for a nice fitting mouthpiece plug and have zero waste. You can also turn tenons and joints in pipe with very good accuracy.

For safety, I replaced the handle on the slide vise with a rod from an old trophy and I can move the cutting tool in the slide vise without being near the piece as it is turning. This is not a dangerous turning procedure, but turning the handle with the long rod is great fun!

I purchased a steb center to drive the rod to be turned from Penn State for $24. which has a retractable center and fine drive ring that doesn't mark the ends of the rod. You can also mount the rod without turning the lathe off if you like!

The bottom line is the slide vise costs new in the Grizzly catalog a charming $54. and with the steb center and a few bolts and washers, you have a machine lathe for less than a $100. So if you have a wood lathe and need to do similar work, this is a great fix and a new way to use your wood lathe.

Spray Booth Box from Staples is Wicked Good!

Several of the folks I talked with on the phone in the past couple of months inquired what kind of gadgets I used to make different parts in a whistle. I thought it might be interesting to show a few time saving and interesting setups that are used in the shop.

I use vinyl to airbrush the color on the whistles and needed a better spray booth to control overspray and odor in the shop. I usually spray everything in the big barn using a dust collector, but it is too cold out there in the winter and I ran out of some colors in the Low D.

After considering several solutions, I decided to use a large poly container with a locking top bought from Staples supply of empty containers. The box measures about 2'x3' and is large enough to put a large whistle inside and have plenty of room to spray.

I screwed the box to the wall next to the back door in the shop and placed a small floor attachment from the shop vac on the bottom right side. I put a regular coat hook in the back to hang the airbrush on when not in use and stretched a sock over the floor attachment to act as a filter. I have a large collection of stretchy socks with small holes that Nadiene saved in a bag to use as buffing rags, so I sacrifice one every time I spray.

All that remained was to hook up the shop vacuum for an air supply and spray! The setup works like a charm and there is no odor or over spray. When I get done spraying, I just snap the cover on the box and everything looks very nice and tidy because it appears to be a nice clean box screwed to the wall!

Another plus feature I had not thought of is vinyl doesn't stick to poly. When the vinyl gets a good film on the inside of the box, you can just vacuum the over spray right off the sides and the box is back to looking like brand new.

This setup would work for spraying all kinds of small items and craft projects and costs less than $20. to put together as long as you have a vacuum on hand.

A ready made spray booth in this size costs about $600. so score one for The WhistleSmith!

Tips for Weatherizing your Wicked Good Whistle!

When you receive your whistle or flute it will be easier to play if you warm the instrument up first. Winter shipping makes for some pretty cold temperatures inside the box and a good warmup will prevent the instrument from holding onto all the moisture you are blowing inside the bore. If you do not warm up the instrument, it will respond by bogging down and not having the volume or tone that it should have. The only remedy is to clean the whistle and dry it out even though it is brand new. I have noticed several makers have started specifying a warm up for their whistles before playing.

 

If you are playing in a room or outdoors and it is colder than 65 degrees, use some method to keep your whistle warm between sets.

Putting your whistle in your sleeve is one method that works well. When playing outdoors in cold weather, I have a dress coat with a long pocket sewed into the sleeve that will hold up to a Low D size whistle. My neighbor made the alteration to the coat for me and it works just great. I think a pocket that used velcro and could be removed would be a great idea.

If you blow the whistle backward from the bottom, the barrel will warm up and the moisture if any will be in the very bottom of the instrument where gravity will make it go away naturally.

I have recommended turning the mouthpiece upside down when playing in windy or cold conditions in several tips articles. Finally, several e-mails have been received telling me what a help this technique is! The amazing thing about inverting the mouthpiece is that the whistle does not know the mouthpiece is upside down and may even sound better! The mouthpiece does not feel funny when turned over and several people have said that it feels more comfortable than the regular position. An added benefit in inverting the mouthpiece is moisture gets pushed by your breath and pulled by gravity out the sound hole and your whistle plays much drier.

Wicked Important DiVinci Code Whistle Info

 

Things have been busy this winter at The WhistleSmith with lots of changes and revisions. You have perhaps noticed the Website has been newly refurbished with whistle pictures and descriptions. The type in the blog is now posting up with larger size type for better reading. There are new categories at the top of the blog to help you find your way around and older articles have been archived to make everything neater and easier to find. Due to the nature of the blog format, be sure to scroll all the way down to find all the entries and pictures in each category. Suggestions from readers on additional information on the whistle and flutes is being added. Here are several new items that should be helpful.

Stock Whistle Colors:

Available stock whistle colors are Jet Black, Dark Brown, Dark Green, Deep Maroon and Dark Navy Blue. The color swatches may appear differently on some computer video and are posted for reference only. These vinyl colors are airbrushed on the whistle and contrast nicely with the silver striping. The Low D now has a band of silver stippling on the tone body to accent the whistle.

TUNING LENGTHS for Whistles & Flutes:

Measurements are made from the bottom of the sound hole to the absolute end of the whistle. Measurement must be made with a precise ruler such as an engineers scale. Hi-D=10.25", Hi-C=11.7", Bb=13.7", Low A=14", Low G=15.6", Low F=17.75", Low D=21" These measurements will put your instrument within five cents of tune (plus or minus on each note). You must use the correct fingering on the whistle chart that comes packed with all WhistleSmith instruments. Moving the slide the width of a piece of paper will change pitch Up when shortening the instrument and pitch Down when lengthening the instrument. These measurements are printed on the fingering chart that comes with your instrument on the bottom right side.

How to fix BREATHY SOUND and LACK OF VOLUME on your whistle!

Clean the Whistle! using the instructions that came with your instrument. A whistle bore that is full of moisture absorbs sound and will make the instrument lose its volume. If the bottom two notes on your whistle go flat or sound drops off, you must clean the whistle. Tongue the whistle on every individual note while playing the scale until you play sharp, clear notes. Breathy notes come from lack of air and the only correction on your whistle or flute is to tongue the whistle properly. You should play the scale from top to bottom and repeat until you can tongue correctly. See article on playing with confidence

 

Wicked Weather Record about to be Broken!

This may be the record snowfall year in Maine! The old record of 181 inches was set in 1955 and I remember skiing to the grocery store on a pair of old paratroop skis from the Big War to get supplies. The snow covered the telephone poles and the roads were closed for a full week before the state sent a huge rotary Oshkosh snow plow to break the road. Big crowds of people went out to the roadside to see the Oshkosh blow the road open. It was quite a sight to see the huge machine swallow the snow and send it over a hundred feet out onto the side of the road.

A couple of days later, the Canadian Pacific opened the tracks from the Canadian border to the turntable in Presque Isle with a huge plow and two steam locomotives hooked in tandem and third engine pushing backward in the rear just in case the plow got stuck and had to be pulled out. The banks along the tracks were twelve feet to the top on the initial push and the steam coming out of the engines was something to see.

We will probably break the snowfall record this month, as we have had 137 inches so far. Wednesday it is forecast to snow about a foot and then we have a Canadian Clipper coming in with another huge snowfall on Saturday in time for the weekend.

I know this has been a record for snowplowing at the WhistleSmith. Every morning for most of the winter, I have put in two to three hours on the orange Kioti and the banks from the road to the woods in back of the shop are sixteen feet deep and ten foot high on both sides of the driveway! Here is a picture piling up snow along the sides of the driveway from the house to the main road. Even with having had two thaws and a heavy rain, there is very little room left to pile up more snow!

What People Say This Fall!

 

On a recent trip to Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, Nadiene and I had a chance to try out the new Trans Canada highway and it is really terrific. The leaves had turned bright red and gold and the view down the St John River to Fredericton was just spectacular. We made a nice five day trip through New Brunswick and on down to Sydney for the Gaelic Festival. The Chieftains opened up the festivities on the first night and absolutely brought the house down! A rolling festival of performers was available for the entire week and performances were scheduled at different towns each day. If you are not familiar with Cape Breton, it is famous for its music and especially for fiddling. We drove the Cabot Trail for a full day and got to see the highlands and mountain bluffs that are just incredible as they drop off into the Atlantic.

Here is a picture of Nadiene in front of the giant 55 ton fiddle at the Sydney Concert hall in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

I love to play the whistle in interesting places, just to hear the natural variety of sounds that are around us everyplace we go. When I mention about playing in the wind and out in the cold, there is a good reason to be concerned that the whistle you play can be trusted to perform under adverse conditions. If you are in a parade and the wind comes up, is your whistle going to cut out and leave with the first strong breeze? If you are playing for a group and the room is air conditioned, is your whistle going to go flat? If you are asked to play Amazing Grace at a serious ceremony or a civil function and the wind comes up...is your performance going to be less than amazing?

Here is a very nice e-mail from S. Bartels that makes an excellent point on playing whistles in the cold that I had not considered.

"It's a pleasure when I play your Low-D whistle during services (with a microphone). I always get compliments and questions on what a wonderful instrument that it is. People like the sound and it's never too cold to play it. Metal whistles can't be played cleanly in an unheated church in winter."

When I checked with my friend Ken Roy and told him about this e-mail, he laughed and said he had forgotten the unheated churches in the winter when he was in the military and stationed in Europe.

The Symphony Slide Flute has picked up quite a few friends along the way this summer. Originally, I recommended Vaseline and a drop of olive oil for lubrication. After consulting with users, I have modified the polyslide slightly and now recommend only a few drops of olive oil. This works very well and makes the slide faster for playing. When the slide flutes were originally designed, they were intended for beginners and a bit of drag was thought to be necessary to give a solid feel to the action of the slide. More professionals have tried this instruments now and the faster slide action is necessary to make it practical for more complex music. Getting feedback and making adjustments go hand and hand to get an instrument that satisfies more applications.

Another request I feel was unique was from a lady who wanted a set of whistles that individually played the scale. She would have each person play a single note (much like playing the bells in a group) and the eight persons would play a full scale. Instead of making a single note custom whistle, I shipped eight symphony slide flutes with a movable washer to set the pitch on each flute. The big advantage in using the slide flute is being able to set the individual flutes to play any note you wish. Using this set up, you can set the whistles to play in any key that you wish. I think this is a fascinating concept on playing the whistle for beginning young people and folks that wish to perform in a professional and unique way without having to read music. I hope to give you all an update on this project and how well it works in the near future.

An inquiry about ordering a dog whistle brought up the fact that the Crisis Whistle also makes a great dog whistle. I used a simple set of long and short whistles for our dogs that was unique to each dog. Rugby the Shar-Pei would only come in if I blew a Long low-short High-Long low blast. That was his call and he always came because he knew I meant business when I blew that particular call.

Ripley, the cocker spaniel only responded to three short quick whistle blasts at the high pitch and that was his unique come home call. There has been some very good feedback on the dog whistle and I will be offering an updated version shortly that is pitched a bit lower than the original Crisis Whistle. This should be a versatile whistle that will work under a wide variety of situations and will come with some informational instructions on using the whistle to train your dog.

Feed back on the new Ultra High D, C & Bb has been very good and the whistles have been well received. A second generation run of 250 whistles on this pattern in just about finished. Making inventory is the current priority so shipping time can stay on schedule. Comments have ranged from Very Nice Whistle! to Fantastic! Not everyone sends e-mail or feedback, but the folks that do let you know if you really got it right.

I receive a lot of phone calls on Friday afternoons about whistles. Most are folks are calling to make a decision on which key whistle they should start with. I recommend a Low A or Low G to let them develop the necessary technique and breath control to play the whistle clearly with good definition. A larger whistle gives the player a more stable whistle that plays in a sound range similar to the human voice. This keeps your dog calm and your cat from leaving home while you practice. If you are married, a low whistle will be appreciated every time you practice and you may get compliments on the piece you are playing without asking "How's that sound this time?"

Here are a few of the comments I received recently.

My Low D arrived yesterday and it is just great! My wife says to tell you that it is a big improvement over the "Feadog Thing"! She says that "Low and Slow is the way to Go!" My dog is napping in the evening again and there is peace in the valley. Thanks for a great whistle that does everything you said it would. Paul, New Jersey

Played my whistle all summer while camping with the family and drew quite a crowd around the campfire. The old songs like Liza Jane and Wabash Cannon Ball were big applause getters and I was surprised by how many children know these songs today. If you play Acres of Clams, everyone knows they have heard the tune, but no one ever knows the name of the song. If you play the whistle, the first song the women ask for is Danny Boy and of course, I close all my "concerts" with Good Night Ladies. Love my A Traveler and so do a lot of listeners. Thomas, Virginia

I used my flute head on my Low D at a Centennial event and several parades this summer so I would look authentic. It worked out perfectly for these events and performed under two days of bad weather when the wind was a real problem. I played around the campfire at night for a group of reenacters and everyone was impressed with my flute skills! Not one person noticed I was playing an auto flute and one listener even said it was a very fine instrument and had I had it long? I told them it was an heirloom that I had recently acquired (which is partly true, as I intend to keep it for a long time).Thanks for great instrument and post this on the web if you like so others can read it. Sue, Maryland

I am doing a project for school. I am using your Website as part of my report on whistles. I would like to know if you can get really rich making whistles. Thanks Jamie, California

I answered this one by saying that I thought it was possible to get rich by doing anything, but if I get fabulously rich from making whistles, I will become a Philanthropist (which was my first choice anyway).

I think the following Squirrel Mail just shows how WhistleSmith has improvedd International relations (especially with our neighbors in Canada).

The D whistle arrived a couple of days ago, but I was very busy with family matters and just got down to giving it a go. Nice tone and it plays quickly with a good clear sound. Volume is plenty. I believe I could raise New Foundland in the morning from my kitchen door. Thanks for a good trade. Michael, Nova Scotia

 

 

Hai Yu has a new Buddy! Dim Sum arrives and takes over the house.

 

We have a new addition to our family. Hai Yu, our all black pug is three and Nadiene thought he could use some dog company to keep him happy. T\he new puppy is a fawn Pug and his name is Dim Sum just like the famous restaurants that serve all the tiny bits of good things to eat. Dim Sum means tiny Morsel in Chinese and he was very small two or three weeks ago. The two dogs are great pals and do everything together. Long afternoon naps and evening walks are a favorite. The wild strawberries are ripe in Maine right now, so a stop to pick and eat a few is necessary if you wish to be a popular dog walker.

Pugs are fun loving, playful dogs and are noted for their personality and disposition. Originally Pugs were the eighty pound mastiffs that guarded the Chinese temples, but were imported into England by the Dutch traders and were bred down in size to about twenty pounds. They are very aware of what is going on and insist on being in the midst of everything.

Self Masking System Makes Airbrushing Wicked Easy!

 

 

 

The WhistleSmith shop has been very busy this summer and this newsletter is way overdue. I have been making steady improvements in the shop that directly affect the flow of instruments and the amount of time spent on producing finished parts.

 

A self masking setup to mask whistles and flutes for airbrushing the vinyl color is finally complete. The masking system is a slide on tube masking system that I made from spare parts and cutoffs that would have otherwise gone into the waste bin. No paper or tape is required to mask off the areas that remain uncoated. Instead, the instrument is masked by sliding close fitting tubing pieces over the areas to be covered. Bores on the tone bodies are filled with a special tube of plastic coated sheet material rolled and inserted into the tone body. Air is introduced into the tone body and the material seals off the fingerholes, keeping the bore clean and preventing vinyl overspray from entering; The vinyl over spray in the finger holes is used instead of dying the hole so that reaming and undercutting is easily seen when tuning the instrument. When the finger holes are completely clean, you know that the hole has been reamed satisfactorily and no holes have been missed. It is a simple but extremely fast and sure method to make sure all finger holes have been addressed and none have been missed.

 

The pieces of tubing used in the masking process can be used over and over and still produce sharp, accurate masking lines. By making the masking pieces the precise length needed to do their job, accurate masking is accomplished without having to measure with a rule or pencil mark on the tonebodies.

When the airbrushed parts are dry, the tube masking pieces can be quickly pulled off and placed in a container for future use. The plastic roll masking is easily pushed out of the tonebody with a piece of dowel and can be used again and again. By using this simple masking system, many hours a month can be saved and the finished airbrushing is easier, better in quality and much more cost effective.

I am offering a paint package that can be added for the all white whistles in the line. The paint package will be an option for your whistle and will be offered in our standard colors: jet black, bright red, cornflower blue, deep maroon, dark brown and racing green. Silver striping and a special decals will also be included as part of the package. Cost will be $8. a whistle for the paint package. The Low A, Low G, and Low F are the model whistles that this package will apply to.

Wicked Good March Info and Comments

Fife and Flute Tuning notes

I recently spent the entire afternoon trying to recreate how you could put a little D fife completely out of tune. A customer in Connecticut had called and said he had a problem with his fife with the tuning. The instrument had played perfectly when he had received it, but after cleaning, the fife was completely out of tune and was not cooperating on going back into tune at all!

I consider these instruments to be bullet proof and they just never have problems. I thought it wasn't worth the cost of postage to and from the shop just to tune the fife, so I said I could figure out what was going on and I would call him back with an answer.

Once before, I had a fife sent back because it lost tuning ability, but after checking it out and cleaning, the instrument had played perfectly and I had returned it to the owner with a clean bill of health. I didn't hear from him again, so I calculated that perhaps something was in the airway and cleaning had corrected the problem.

So I pulled out a brand new fife, played it against the tuning program and a key board to verify it was in tune. I took the fife apart and pushed out the poly plugs, made sure it was entirely clean and put it back together. The fife played fine and the tuning was dead on. Since you can change the tuning buy moving the tone body and the mouthpiece slide, I tried moving the instrument in and out of tune by moving them. When I put the pieces back on the index marks, the fife went back into tune!

Then it occurred to me that the poly plugs move. So what if the primary plug was pushed too far away from the sound hole? I always have set this plug as close to the sound hole as possible just like a fipple plug is set on a whistle. When the plug was moved up and away from the sound hole, the fife went completely out of tune and no amount of persuasion could make it go into tune.

Then it occurred to me that regular fifes use these plugs for all of their tuning...too much head variable and that was the problem! I had simply never set the plugs differently on the fifes or flutes when I assembled them and when I checked my plans, I had instructed people to assemble them that way too.

I called the gentleman back and explained what was going on and he was in tune in less than a minute.

The diagram of the fife also pertains to flutes made on this plan and is included with your instrument when you receive it. Be sure to read all the instructions to make your start on the auto fife is a good playing experience.

Comments on Kids

I have had a reoccurring experience in the shop when children visit with their parents and decide they would like to play a whistle. The parents immediately ask "How much do they cost?" as if this were really a consideration. This is followed by some inquiry about "How much noise do they make?"

In an age where everything has a volume and it is generally turned up to the max, why do parents immediately ask about the noise level? You can literally see the child shrink when they hear the question and they begin to abandon ship immediately. The words noise and music don't go together in the same sentence when you speak to a child.

I generally have an extra whistle or two in the shop, so I offer to have the child take a whistle home and report back in a week or so on how many different sounds they have figured out. Once they have played the whistle and gotten all the sound effects out of their system, they usually come back for a lesson on fingering and playing music on the whistle. If playing the whistle is a problem at home, the acoustically perfect barn is open on Thursday nights, and they are welcome to come out for extra tutoring and a chance to play with other whistlers.

When my boys were home, they sang, played instruments and spent untold hours playing all kinds of music. In the basement, we had an upright piano that Nadiene played and I would tune up the tenor banjo for impromptu concerts in the evening. On the weekends at camp, we had a bedspring for a grill with a big fire in the evenings and every one on the campground would drop by to sing songs and hear the banjo and guitar. I made sure that no one ever said "What's that noise? are you trying to sing?"

If you tell someone enough times that their music is noise, they will believe you and never try to be a singer, a player or know the joy of music. Many people start their musical career when they retire. This is the first time many folks have had to try their hand at playing an instrument after spending years just making a living and raising a family. I think the whistle is the best instrument available for the beginning musician and there is nothing as exciting as a new whistle player laying down some notes.

Whistle Comments for March

Dozens of people this past year have mentioned that "I used to play the sax (or some other instrument), but I think I'd like to try playing the whistle." I think there is a huge return to things that are a bit simpler and more familiar.

One lady told me that whistle playing was addictive and second only to the excitement of adding whistles to her collection. Apparently she searched for new and unusual keys and types of whistles and had given up clothes and shoe collecting entirely. Anyway, she was having a very good time and was whistle shopping for souvenirs to take home for her friends and family.

Children who already play some sort of instrument in school like a clarinet, trumpet, trombone, or flute, are looking for a simpler instrument to help them decipher music they are already working on. Some want an instrument that is more to their liking and the whistle really fits this category for many folks. One little girl after picking out her whistle of choice said in a small quiet voice, "You have saved me from the recorder! I just can't stand to play that thing"

Good and Plenty whistle

I received an email from a whistle buyer in Pennsylvania who lives near Lancaster in the midst of Amish country. Here is an excerpt of his letter with a story and a bit of humor. "I recently was waiting for my wife to do some shopping in a road side furniture store near Lancaster, PA. I got tired of sitting in the car , so I ambled over to where there were some rocking chairs for sale and took my whistle along for company. I bought the Traveler, Low A in October and I carry it on the road while I call on accounts.

There were no customers outside the shop, so I settled in to play a tune or two and probably had been playing a full ten minutes when I noticed I had an audience of two Amish children of about ten. I stopped playing and said hello and they responded that they liked my music and settled in to hear another piece. I had played a couple of my favorite songs when their father showed up and with a nod invited me to play some more.

I played for a bit more and then took a break and showed the two children the whistle and how it played. The father looked the whistle over and asked me if it had a name and I replied it was a WhistleSmith Low A. He smiled and said " I think you should call it 'the Good and Plenty!' because it plays plenty well and good too!" Thought you would enjoy hearing that you have an Amish admirer of your whistle. As you can tell I think this a great whistle to take on the road too.

Italian One Man Band

I recently had a Mr. Di Pantaleo buy a slide flute on the eBay store. We shipped it to Italy and he was very happy with his purchase. It turns out he is a one man band and has added a WhistleSmith slide flute to his repertoire, so we are now in an orchestra in Italy. How cool is that? You can see the one man band in person if you go to www.onemanband.org. Here is a picture from the website with the one man band in action.

 

Am I a Right or Left Handed Wicked Good Whistler?

I don't think I have published the brand name of any other makers products on these pages before. I'm sure you will excuse Don Simcocks enthusiasm for his new whistle and I did promise him I would post his letter. I am humbled by his praise, what can I say...when a whistler is happy, well, they are happy!

This also proves that the good old US mail does deliver and pretty fast too if you use Global Priority Mail.

Rod,
Cannot believe the speed of arrival of my Traveler! 11 AM on the 9th....that's quicker than some internal letters take to reach me. Thrilled by tone...really "breathy", as good as my "Chieftain", at a fraction of the price!
I am appointing myself your "volunteer publicist" for the UK (and anywhere else!)
Please use this in your "What people think" page!

Best wishes to all your folks, Don Simcock

The email for the past month has been loaded with inquiries about the Low D whistle. Most of the email contains at least one reference such as, "Can people with small hands REALLY play the Low D whistle like you describe it on your website?" And I repeatedly reply "YES" unless you can't reach 2.3" or you have arthritis and cannot stretch your hands with a minimal amount of grip to seal the holes."

It is a fact that the Low D is playable by anyone from ten to a hundred and ten if you can just reach that
2.3" requirement for your right hand.

You will also notice that I have Low D whistles for all you left handed players now. When you purchase a Low G Auto Flute, Low G whistle or Low D whistle, you will be asked if you want a right or left handed model. This is because these whistles have offset finger holes to make them more comfortable to play.

I have had some absolutely fabulous letters describing where folks hold their hands and fingers when they play the whistle and are they right or left handed? If you play with your right hand on the BOTTOM three holes of the whistle and your LEFT hand on the TOP three holes of the whistle, you are a RIGHT HANDED whistler.

Then there is the letter explaining that "I am left handed, but I play the whistle the regular right handed way. Okay, you are a RIGHT HANDED WHISTLE PLAYER!

The best answer so far has been...I think I play right handed, but my friend says if I was a surfer, I would be "Goofy Footed:" on my surfboard. What does that mean? Will I not be able to play the Low D now that I have found this out?

No, you will be okay because...It is a fact that the Low D is playable by anyone from ten to a hundred and ten if you can just reach that 2.3" requirement for your right hand.

I also got three email inquiring about the Low F that I mentioned would be available soon.
The Low F is ready to go! I just have to decide a couple of more details before I can post up the description and a finished price. I have a five gallon pail of these cute little critters put together up in the shop and they will be ready to go before the end of the month. I promise.

I played the Low F prototype over the Christmas holiday and I really like this whistle key. The range of this whistle is very nice and I found it to be easy on air and played very economically. Not a big as a Low D and longer than the Low G, it has a very smooth voice. I would guess that the Low F is going to be a perfect practice whistle for a lot of players and I find it an interesting whistle to play. Small bore and low whistle don't always go together well, but I think this whistle has something going for it. We will see!

I haven't changed the instruction sheet that comes with the Mystic Auto Flute since I put the first batch together Everyone apparently read the instructions, picked up the flute and played it without having any trouble understanding the tech sheets.

Then in late January, I got several phone calls and email from folks who could not understand how the mouthpiece worked. Apparently they threw the instructions away with their Christmas tree and had never read them. When I was discussing the problem with one of my lady test players, she began to laugh out loud and then she told me about her experience with the auto flute.

She took her flute along with her during the holidays and during the course of events, several relatives and friends asked if they could try the instrument. She was not carrying the technical sheet so she had to instruct the new player on how the instrument worked.

She explained to me that at first not one of them could play the mouthpiece because they insisted on puckering up and trying to blow into the wrong hole. Apparently a hole is not a hole unless you can see down into it, and the idea of how you blow a flute in ingrained deeply into our mind. You MUST pucker up and blow into a little hole or there can be no flute music! That is the Rule!

She also explained that once one person got the idea and could play the flute, it became a contest to see who could show the next player what they were doing wrong. She concluded her story by telling me to put a sign on the correct hole in the mouthpiece and just say Blow into this Hole!

Good advise is good advise. When you receive your flute or fife, it now comes with this wrap around sheet on the mouthpiece.

Whistle Up a Texas Fried Turkey!

When company comes unannounced and there is a large crowd to feed quickly, it is a big help to have a way to take care of the situation.

I like to run down to my favorite grocer and get a nice fresh turkey. The one in the picture is about thirteen pounds and is just right to Texas Fry in my cooker. All you have to do is wash the turkey inside and out and dry it well to remove as much moisture from the bird as possible. Remember to take that funny little packet out of the bird before washing.

Nadiene usually gives the bird a good rub on the outside with fresh garlic juice and pepper and then injects it with marinade and her big marinade needle. The marinade is a available in all kinds of flavors and it makes the bird extra tasty and tender. Make sure the wings are opened up so the oil can flow under them and not leave an uncooked spot on the bottom of the breast meat.

Then it is a matter of getting the peanut oil up to a boil and lowering the bird into the kettle for a thirty five minute cooking or about 3 minutes a pound. Use a meat thermometer to check the bird is done by inserting it into the back of the breast meat.

After removing the turkey from the cooker, let it cool down and cut it into serviing size pieces right on the stand. This is a delicious way to do turkey, chicken, cornish hens and ducks. There is no grease and the skin is absolutely the most delicious you have ever tasted.

The day we did this bird, it was about thirty degrees outside, but the acoustically perfect barn was around fifty degrees. I have cooked turkeys this way in the barn at twenty five below zero, which might be an Olympic and World record .To pass the time while the bird was cooking, I played our friend, Diane Barnes and Nadiene Turkey in the Straw and another tune or two on the Low G.

Oh, I forgot, the marinade was Lawry's Tequila lime and Nadiene used a whole bottle on the turkey. I was a bit afraid it might explode when I dropped it into the cooker, but everything came out all right.

So remember, another place you can play your whistle is while you Texas Fry your turkey!

Wicked Weather and Comments to Start Winter...

While the snow snows and the wind blows steadily from the North Pole. We Mainers like to touch up the landing strip for the four wheel drive.

Ebay auctions are interesting and you receive a lot of questions about your auction item. I have found that most buyers are concerned that the details of the whistle or flute on auction are clear, factual and truthful. I have probably said that I feel the buyers on eBay are not looking for a cheap instrument, but a good quality instrument with features that are important to them at a reasonable price. So, here are some quotes and answers from eBay buyers and a few from the website as well.

My favorite recent feedback on a Low D whistle comes from Australia.

Received my whistle on the 4th. Excellent service, awesome sound. Many thanks.The koalas on the back trees love it too. Beauty mate!

When you get a message like this, you have received feedback that lets you know everything you needed to know. Looks like poetry to me!

Another person in Australia wrote me a short letter about her Low D whistle.

Dear Mr. Brewer, I purchased a Low D from you about a year ago and learned to play it in about a month. Recently, I thought I would like a more professional whistle to play and sold the WhistleSmith and ordered another whistle for a lot more money than I paid for yours. By the way, I sold the Low D and made a slight profit on it, even though it was used to my neighbor. She really likes it and plays everyday.

Anyway, my new whistle arrived after four weeks wait and it was everything I had expected. The finish was beautifully done. The aluminum was a nice weight and overall it was as nice as I had expected. The only problem was that I cannot reach the fingering despite trying every thing I can think of. There is no use buying an expensive whistle that looks great if you cannot play it. I would like to order a new Low D in magenta with the silver stippling you do on some of the custom whistles on your website.

And the letter goes on a some length with some requests on voicing. I shipped her the new whistle the same week she ordered it and she has responded that she is very satisfied.

The same questions about the Low D come in every week. Are the facts about playing the Low D factual? What is a whistle with small hands playing sound like? What if I have large hands and will I be able to play the whistle? What is the distance between holes?

I try to answer these questions as clearly as possible. The email that really raises my ears is the one where you repeatedly get asked if your claims about the whistle are FACTUAL? W e l l . . . yes of course they are or why would you bother to type out a great big list of features if it was just something you made up?

I finally realized where this IS IT FACTUAL? query comes from. It is from all those folks who bought a Low whistle that requires BAGPIPE FINGERING. This is the myth that you can play a whistle with huge holes and a long reach for your fingers by using your BAGPIPE FINGERS. I would guess you get BAGPIPE FINGERS by tying your fingers to the bumper of your neighbors car and stretching them until they fit your new Low whistle.

If you have small hands, BAGPIPE FINGERS are not part of your bag of tricks. (How is that for a neat play on words?)

There are thousands of Low whistles available in new and used condition that require BAGPIPE FINGERING in on-line stores and auctions. They are usually accompanied by the sellers sad tale of a lack of time or patience to play the Low whistle and they are now selling the whistle in excellent condition on auction. If it says the whistle requires BAGPIPE FINGERING, please use your ability to solve puzzles and DON'T BUY IT!

A bagpipe uses a big bag full of wind to play. This steady flow of air makes a bagpipe playable. Unless you have the lungs of Goliath, you cannot make a whistle function in the same manner as a bagpipe. Extended fingering is another way of saying BAGPIPE FINGERING. Avoid the word EXTENDED when reading descriptions of whistles, unless it says EXTENDED WARRANTY. Enough said, I am sure you get the point.

While on the subject of Low whistle, I feel I should mention one more time, that you can not dry out and clean the bore on a NEW whistle too many times. I send out a complete sheet about cleaning and how to adjust your WhistleSmith Low whistle. I also repeatedly tell folks to read the instructions before they play their whistle and auto flutes to get the best results. Please read the instructions and you will have fun with your instruments and will give them the attention they need to break in and play properly. I will tell anyone that has not played a Low D whistle, that it takes two to three hours to get even moderately good at breath control and fingering the whistle. You should clean and dry the whistle a minimum of every half hour while you are breaking it in. That is a minimum of six times in three hours play...if you follow the instructions, you will have a swell playing whistle.

If you do not read the instructions and break the whistle in properly, it will not respond properly until you take the time to read the instructions and BREAK THE WHISTLE IN PROPERLY!

Several folks who have purchased the new Low A Traveler whistle responded with comments. Three of the remarks made by almost everyone is that the whistle has a nice heft to it and that it is accurately tuned and the octaves are well balance. I played this whistle all summer and on vaction and that really sums it up. No unwanted tricks to playing this whistle and people who got an on the road concert liked the sound of the Traveler.

Several dozen Low G Auto Flutes were sold on eBay auction for Christmas presents. Most folks played the automatic mouthpiece right out of the box with no problems. Six people called on the 1-800 line to find out the mystery of how the flute worked and had a good laugh about how easy it was. If you have a serious problem with anything you receive from the WhistleSmith, please just call and Nadiene or I will give you a hand.

And in closing for this week, an individual inquired if I knew where the name WhistleSmith came from and how did I qualify for that title. Well, I made it up to get a website name and it wasn't my first choice. I suppose that there might have been a Smith that made whistles and they called him The Whistle Smith to seperate his identity from the Smith that made tin stuff and was called The Tin Smith. His cousin who lived down the road was called The Black Smith because he was covered with soot from working the forge in his Black Smith Shop.

A name is a name and WhistleSmith is just something I made up to describe my new business. Did you happen to notice that my WhistleSmith is one word and the S in Smith is capitalized? I never intended to take anything away from anyone else who is a Smith. However, I noticed that my neighbor who is a Smith calls me The Whistlesmith instead of Brewer since I started the website.

Whistle Kids test a Wicked Good Slide Flute

This fall, I finished up some prototypes of a new slide flute. The flute plays in a lower range than the Mystic Slide Flute that I introduced last season. The reason for developing this new lower slide flute was suggested by players who purchased instruments and wanted a lower slide flute for playing two part harmony.

This new instrument is based on Low G Mystic Auto Flute components and has a very nice mellow sound and plays smoothly right out of the box. The instrument requires no break in period and uses vaseline (petroleum jelly) with the addition of a single drop of Extra Virgin olive oil for the slide lubricant! The poly plug capped slide moves effortlessly and the feel from the heavy fiberglass slide rod makes playing the instrument feel much like the motion of a violin bow. A full write up and pictures will be posted shortly and a special sale promotion is in the works in March.

The week before Christmas, I had a return vist from Jenna Hallett who is ten and her brother Jordan who is thirteen. Their parents are Greg and Jennifer Hallett from Presque Isle and I got to know Jenna from her mother visiting the screenprint shop to pick up orders for the local hockey team.

Jenna is very interested in music and I had suggested she take a whistle home with her and see how she made out with it on a previous visit. We had a short lesson on that visit and I showed her the basics of how the whistle was played, how the fingering chart worked and how to maintain and clean her whistle.

 

Jenna has been practicing her pennywhistle for about three months and has really improved her playing. When she visits the shop, she brings her whistle along and we spend a bit of time learning some practice repetitions for her to play at home.

I thought it would be a great idea if she and her brother Jordan became testers for the new slide flute. Jenna was excited about the prospect of getting to try out an all new musical instrument and Jordan liked the idea of the slide flute immediately. My exact instructions were for them to see how long it took before they could play a tune on the slide flute, how many wild sounds they could produce and if there was anything that they thought should be changed. Oh yes, I also instructed Jordan to see if the construction was rugged and let me know if anything broke. I think a brother and sister team will be competitive enough to find any weak spots. I'll keep you posted on how they made out in another week or so.

 

Deburring Tools Give Wicked Good Results!

Many of the tools I use on whistles cannot be bought in a store. A lot of time over the past few years has been spent inventing all kinds of clamping , cutting, grinding and shaping jigs and holddowns. Many of the knives and grinding tools have had to be searched for and altered to do specific jobs on whistle components. I have used deburring tools on whistles for some time now and they are great little gadgets for cleaning up the loose ends and removing plastic and metal burrs from pipe for a nice finished look. Resharpening these tools is possible, but I find the results are mixed and no matter how carefully you hone the blade, you are not always going to get a useable edge for cutting metal or plastic as good as the original.

Several companies make deburring tools and prices vary depending on the grade of steel and coatings on the cutters. Noga makes a very high grade blade and has a selection of over a hundred different styles of blades for inside hole and outside hole deburring. Grizzly Industrial sells a very good quality disposable deburring tool at three units for five dollars. I purchased several dozen of these because they are so inexpensive and when they are a bit too dull for working on whistles, I move them over to the wood shop to take the edges off boards.

By pulling the deburring blade down the edge of a board with the grain, you can round the edge perfectly in one pull. The fine curl of wood on a piece of oak or hardwood is fascinating to see...pull and a four or five foot curl of wood is produced.

This is a very safe tool to use. The end has a small ball that makes the blade track on curves and keeps the blade in contact with the edge. The blade is very sharp, but it does not slip off the board or piece of pipe because the blade is curved and swivels to follow the edge. I have never had a cut on my hands from the blade in all the hours I have used this tool. Bet you can't say that about your utility knife!

The edges on silkscreen frames are usually either sharp or a bit rough from ripping the wood on the table saw. After I nail the frames together with the air nailer in a jig, I take the deburring tool and make the sharp edges into a nice smooth surface before stretching the cloth onto them. If you make anything out of wood and need a clean edge, these little tools will do a good job for you.

My good friend Boyd Bowden was by for a visit over the holidays and I was telling him how much I liked using the deburring tools on my wood projects. I knew he was a model maker (very impressive sailing ships) and usually involved in some sort of wood project, so I showed him how I was using the deburring tool in the shop. He just laughed out loud when I showed him how easy it was to smooth the edges on a board. I had several extra tools so I sent him home with three or four to try on his projects. I also warned him to try them out on scrap pieces of wood at first because, it is so much fun to use that a really good board could be scrap before you could stop trying out the tool.

Another friend of mine and classmate in high school is Jim Warren from Bangor, Maine. He dropped by on his travels promoting the new drink sensation called Slammers. You should really try this product! Jim left me a couple of cases of product and it is sensational. It is a new milk drink that has Dove chocolate, Three Musketeers, and two other different flavors and lasts six months without refrigeration right on your kitchen shelf. Jim's brother invented the process and it is a terrific new product.

While we were visiting, Jim mentioned he was building a new hot rod from scratch and showed me a couple of pictures of his project. I showed him the deburring tool and suggested it would be a great tool to get rid of sharp burrs while he was putting the car together. He had never seen the tool, so I sent him home with a new one to try on his project. He was back today, and told me that he kept the deburrer in his overalls pocket and got rid of the sharp burrs as he worked and it was making the project a lot SMOOTHER.

I wish I had discovered these handy little gadgets whenI worked on small engines. The amount of cuts from working on small engines and lawn mowers were an everyday event, because of all the small sheet metal components with rough edges.

Deburring tools work better for rounding edges on wood than the special English tools made for that purpose and sold for a much higher price. None of the companies making deburring tools mentions they will work on wood, but trust me they do a great job. Try one on the next birdhouse you build. I'm sure you will have fun with this tool.

Wicked Good Black Squirrels in Arlington Heights

This year Nadiene and I spent Christmas with my younger son Jay and his wife Maya. Our newest grandson Ewan Thomas has just turned two months and granddaughter Anya is now heading for three and learning something new every day.

Because it is a full days drive from Presque Isle to Boston even if the weather is good, we try to swap Christmas destinations every year to even out the travel distances. Rodney Lee, his wife Patty, grand daughter Marilyn, and my grandson Darren (2.5 years and growing) headed out from Mineral, Virginia to visit Uncle Jay in Boston and when everyone arrived the house was full.

We had a great holiday with lots to eat and plenty of homemade cooking. Jay had just finished up the entire basement into a large apartment sized entertainment room with sleeping area and bath, so everyone could move around and have plenty of room to visit. The amount of presents around the tree was pretty incredible and I am certain everyone got what they wanted when Santa arrived.

Of course the weather was the really incredible thing for Christmas. Green grass, 50 degree temperatures and although the sun was missing most of the time it was a good chance to walk around and see the neighborhood. We were actually in Arlington Heights just outside of Boston and the house is on top of the mountain which is capped by the Arlington Standpipe. This is a landmark for folks headed into Boston and is mirrored on the other side of 2A East by the Mormon Temple with its gold weather vane of Gabriel blowing his horn. It is pretty hard to miss the Arlington Heights turnoff with two giant landmarks like these.

My grand daughter Marilyn and I decided to take our new Christmas whistles and take a walk up to the Standpipe and check out the acoustics of a huge round tower full of water. The Standpipe had a lot of folks going to visit their neighbors and people out for a jog, so we attracted a small group of folks stopping to listen to us play.

The wind was pretty fierce on one side of the Standpipe, but the side facing Boston was less windy and by flipping the whistle mouthpieces over, we managed to play without any problems. Since we had to share the camera duties , I have made a collage of the photos so you can at least tell we were playing on the same location. On a good day, you can see all of Boston from the top of the hill and it is really a spectacular view.

Anyway, Marilyn and I have added the Arlington Heights Standpipe as an interesting place to play your whistle. The tiny person in front of the Standpipe is my Marilyn starting to freeze in the wind. It really is a very big structure!

If you walk around Arlington Heights for even a short period of time, you will note that they have a huge population of gray squirrels. The large silver maples and oak trees are full of squirrel condos and there is nothing to bother the squirrels as they work their territories hiding nuts and looking for berries and seeds. Because the weather was so warm, all the squirrels were out and it didn't take long to discover the fact that the Heights has a very large population of all Black squirrels. This is a rare squirrel and is found in small pockets of animals in Canada and in various places in the US.

You can search on line for black squirrels and check out some of the various sightings listed there. Arlington Heights has a large population and sighting a Black squirrel should be no problem. Getting a great photo of one is a problem and especially if it is dark or rainy outside, they just so not show up very much. Leave your camera at the house and they will follow you around, but take the camera and they seem to leave very quickly.

Wicked Good Whistle Making Gadgets and the All Mighty Dollar!

The summer of 2006 was extremely hot here in Northern Maine and many days it was just too hot to do much outside. When the temperature gets into ninety degrees here, you know that you are going to get a real suntan and you had better put on a bunch of sun block. With the extra hot weather, running the tee shirt line became a real problem with the extra heat from the conveyor that is used to cure large numbers of tee shirts adding to the shop temperature. I took advantage of afternoons that were too hot to process clothing by spending the time in the whistle shop where it was much cooler and with an open window and fan creating a good breeze was more like working outdoors.

When you work on whistles day after day, you soon become aware of the way you do the repetitive jobs in the shop. I found a dozen or more processes in making various parts that I could either do away with or do better by changing the method I was using to make that part. I find I have plenty of time when doing several hundred thumb rings or similar repetitive parts to think out the process and decide if there is a way to improve the method of manufacture. I can usually find a way to make a jig (a gadget to hold or position the piece you are working on) that will make the part faster, better or more safely.

I have used lathes to a large extent to produce many products over the years, but I gradually came to realize that setting up whistle parts on the lathe was just too time consuming. By changing the making of parts to shapers, mill drill setups and grinding instead of cutting on the lathe produced remarkable time savings and made better and more consistent parts. By using these methods, I can make small runs of parts if needed to fill in the count when assembling whistles and flutes.

I have machinery setups that are never changed to make 90 percent of the stock parts used to produce the major parts that are used in whistles and flutes . The set up is permanent to make parts that are more consistent than is possible any other way. All that sounds complicated, but with advise from Grizzly Industrials staff (see my short piece on my visit to their showroom ) I was able to add four drill presses with milling vises to accomplish everything I needed in the way of additional equipment. The savings by using their suggestions amounted to a dollar figure of $8,500. over doing the same procedures by any other methods. On some whistle parts, the savings in time has been 200 per cent and when manufacturing mounting pins it has been 400 per cent! The bottom line is that these parts are better and more precise than any other method of producing them.

 

Here is a picture of one of the new cross slide vises that I have been using. Available at Woodcraft. com, it is a really nice piece of machinery. When bolted onto your drill press, the Bitmoore slide vise allows you to mill and drill with extreme accuracy. The vise is usually about $79 and sometimes is on sale for less. If you do woodworking it is absolutely the best. Combined with a laser drill press, I can do precision work without having to work hard to do it. How about that!

The price of the new line of instruments has been directly affected by the way I have been able to redesign the whistle and flute lines over the summer. Mouthpieces and tone bodies on the various keys of whistles have been made modular on whistles and fifes. Low whistles and flutes now use the same tone bodies , whistle mouthpieces and flute heads. By tuning each key individually on the instruments, I can produce better sound and still use standard pieces to assemble the basic instrument. As new instruments are added into the line (yes! there are more new items on the way!) the modular concept will keep prices down and product will improve. Henry Ford invented standard parts to make cars, so I am using a tested principle to make a variety of instruments. Standard parts is not a new concept, but a very practical way to make things if you can get the engineering to work.

The spin off of redesigning the line of whistles has produced several dozen pages of technical notes and sketches of various procedures that I will be following up on as time permits. WhistleSmith is not just about making whistles, but about finding solutions and taking new ideas and pursuing them to find what else may be useful or new.

This coming summer, I will be conducting an informal workshop in August. A Canadian inventor and a would be whistle maker from Nova Scotia have already made it known that they are coming. This will be a hands on workshop and sharing of information obtained from the various prototypes that have evolved over the past two years. It is always productive to sit down and have a think tank with folks with like interests and something usually comes popping up out that is usable. Sooooooo, we will just see what it might be this summer.

These time savings let me have more time to assemble and have basic instruments ready to finish and tune for quicker shipment. This year, I was able to ship your whistle in two working days or less.

I will be passing these savings on to you, the customer by maintaining current prices and in many cases lowering the price on most instruments. You will note that eBay auction prices and the www.whistlesmith.com pricing scale has been brought into line with each other.

I have decided to remain with eBay as the primary advertising medium because of the success of being able to sell to an international group of customers that appreciate being able to deal directly with WhistleSmith.

The decision was made late in the summer that it would be beneficial to deal only directly with customers. The use of retailers would make the cost to the customer double for the same product and sales are sufficient to meet our expectations without bringing more sales outlets into the picture. The decision to sell only directly to the customer has nothing to do with web store dealers, their reputations or products that they carry. I have several proposals on hand to make product for web stores with their ideas and trademarks and I am leaving these ideas on the table. Until announced differently, the WhistleSmith and all products are available only on eBay or our website. Any other sales outlets advertising our products are not legal or recognized by Rod Brewer Designs Inc. the parent company of The Whistlesmith.

Nadiene and I find that taking care of customers and their personal requests on instruments is better accomplished by talking directly to the customer or answering questions before the sale of any instruments.

Clubs, groups and individuals that wish to purchase in multiple numbers have no problem on receiving product or discounts and they are invited to call at 1-800-675-4206 for personal quotes.

Wicked Good Inside Scoop on Whistles!

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 to get 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 condensate 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 an only hope he was just trying to be humorous.

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.

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.

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!