New to forums

[Cholbroo17]

Hello evervyone my name is Chris and I'm New to forums. So but I've been playing the whistle for about ten years and I own a couple whistles now I lost my old collection a while back I own a sindt, a Milligan and am waiting for my A Bell now anyway I have a question on how to take care of my Milligan whistle I've never owned a wooden whistle before. So any help would be great thanks.

[manu.bande]

Hello evervyone my name is Chris and I'm New to forums. So but I've been playing the whistle for about ten years and I own a couple whistles now I lost my old collection a while back I own a sindt, a Milligan and am waiting for my A Bell now anyway I have a question on how to take care of my Milligan whistle I've never owned a wooden whistle before. So any help would be great thanks.

Hi Chris,

welcome to the C&F forum !

For taking care of a wooden whistle the best is always ask first to the whistle maker
that is making your whistle.

What I'm doing when receive a new wooden whistle is:
1) let the whistle acclimatize to his new environment (your home)
2) always warm up the whistle's body before playing it
3) playing in period: first week 10 minutes a day; second week 20 minutes a day,
then you can increase longer playing time(30 min., 1 hour, and so on) as your wish
4) after playing always swab the interior of the whistle with a cloth to get rid of
the moisture
5) oil the interior and exterior of the whistle with almond oil (or different oil, I use also
Tea Three Oil which is very good for getting rid of mold), I oil my dense wood whistles
once or twice a year, if the wood is more porous and not so dense and oily as african
blackwood, rosewood, mopane, etc., you can oil it more often !

I hope it will help !

[Cholbroo17]

Thanks a lot

[Cholbroo17]

Is there a particular brand of almond oil I should yet.

[brewerpaul]

Welcome to the forum and the world of wooden whistles. Taking care of them is not difficult and needn't be intimidating.
Keep your whistles away from extreme heat and cold, and especially be aware of moving them from one extreme environment to another.
Leaving your whistle in a closed car on a hot summer day is just asking for trouble.
Swab out the whistle after playing it for more than a few minutes. At the very least, shake out excess condensed breath moisture. Don't store a damp whistle in a closed case.
You can oil the whistle once in a while with any number of types of oil. Lately I've been using Almond Oil with a couple of drops of Vitamin E oil added to keep the oil from going rancid. Glenn Schultz recommended that his whistles be oiled "when they look dry" through the finger holes. Most people seem to feel that they have to oil their wooden whistles heavily and often but this is actually bad for the wood, which can only absorb just so much oil. A very thin coat, with excess wiped off, is all you need and only a couple of times a year. I hate to tell you how little maintenance I give my own personal whistles, and apart from a Snakewood whistle, never had one crack.

[jadphoto]

You don't mention which wood your Milligan is made from (of?).

If it's Diamond Wood, it's resin impregnated (you should pardon the expression) and won't need to be oiled.

Double check with Gene, always a good idea as mentioned above, but I remember that's what he told me when I got the two Diamond Wood whistles, C and A, I bought from him. My Blackwood whistle on the other hand I do oil, but I use commercial woodwind bore oil rather than almond oil. I think it was Casey Burns who turned me on to that, but I wouldn't swear to it.

JD

[Cholbroo17]

My Milligan whistle is blackwood. But I don't know where to find almond oil or any of the oil that I need.

[Mr.Gumby]

But I don't know where to find almond oil or any of the oil that I need.

Any well stocked pharmacy will supply almond oil. It's also available on-line in 50 or 100ml bottles. The usual advice is to add a bit of vitamine E to avoid it getting rancid but if you get a small bottle you'll probably be OK (I never used the vitamin).

For exterior use on a set of pipes I was recommended, by a maker, Renaissance wax some time ago. This was developed by the British museum for the conservation of wood and metal. it's a very fine microcrystalline wax polish/wax (also available online, take as small container, it goes a long way). This appears, so far, to hold up Very Well on both wood and metal and will work fine to keep the exterior of your whistle pristine.

[jadphoto]

My Milligan whistle is blackwood. But I don't know where to find almond oil or any of the oil that I need.

Any well-stocked music store will have woodwind bore oil.

JD

[Chifmunk]

Cholbroo, glad you joined up here!