Whistle Tour - New Maker
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 9:04 pm
Agreed...beautiful looking whistle!Doogie wrote:Some of you may know me as a bagpipe maker for the past 18 years. I've read about the whistle tours on the forums here and wanted to know how to get that started. I'm in no hurry but would like to do it this summer if possible. Thanks, Seth
Not sure that cocus is one of the restricted rosewoods that fall under the CITES regulations, but it would be worth checking. As for the "not selling" part, I'd be cautious there. The inspectors might not really comprehend the "I'm sending it around to a bunch of people to play with but I'm not selling it—honest" line. There's been some talk on the flute forum about a tour and a similar question came up—with no answer as yet.whistlecollector wrote: Since you're not selling it, I don't think the CITES hooligans have any say in you shipping it overseas.
Casey Burns seems to be the C&F CITES guru. According to his latest information: "I asked about repairs, etc. and sending flutes back and forth. Since these couldn't be sales, but repairs, theoretically they wouldn't be considered "trade" - but to be on the safe side permits are recommended."Steve Bliven wrote:Not sure that cocus is one of the restricted rosewoods that fall under the CITES regulations, but it would be worth checking. As for the "not selling" part, I'd be cautious there. The inspectors might not really comprehend the "I'm sending it around to a bunch of people to play with but I'm not selling it—honest" line. There's been some talk on the flute forum about a tour and a similar question came up—with no answer as yet.whistlecollector wrote: Since you're not selling it, I don't think the CITES hooligans have any say in you shipping it overseas.
Best wishes.
Steve
A man after my own heart. Mopane is my favorite tonewood ever.brewerpaul wrote:That's a beautiful whistle. Good luck in your endeavors. If you ever want to exchange maker's ideas, send me a message.
I think Cocuswood is not a CITES species so shipping it should be OK,assuming the customs officials are experienced enough to recognize it for what it is, and not a species of prohibited wood. I'm not totally sure about shipping prohibited wooden instruments for repairs.
From what I understand, genuine Cocuswood is quite rare and other species are sometimes sold to unsuspecting instrument makers as Cocus.
The closest wood I've seen and used is Mopane which is a terrific woodwind material and not prohibited.
Yep, it's almost impossible to get anymore and was all but wiped out by instrument makers in the 1800's and early 1900's. I bought it in log form many years back and it was ridiculously expensive. It's hard to tell it apart from Mopane visually, some pieces, but sounds different. I sent some to a flute maker Patrick Olwell? Ollwell? a few months ago and some to a whistle maker in Australia. I'll send you a piece if you want to try it. Anytime I do an eBay search for cocuswood I see old flutes or Pakistan made instruments called "Cocus" which is not. I was going to make bagpipes from what I have but I figured I could do more whistles from the stuff and make it go further.brewerpaul wrote: From what I understand, genuine Cocuswood is quite rare and other species are sometimes sold to unsuspecting instrument makers as Cocus.
The closest wood I've seen and used is Mopane which is a terrific woodwind material and not prohibited.
Like I said, I've only been part of one tour, but followed a number, and i can't remember an instrument going missing... but sometimes I'm here regularly, and sometimes go missing myself for a while. The one I was on there were no issues with crossing the border.... the person before me just popped it in the mail. I was last stop, and as it happened the whistle stayed with me, but with full knowledge of the maker. I send and receive stuff from the US all the time; only had one thing go missing. Anyway, i understand the concern for sure, and it is beautiful whistle, it would be a shame to lose it but i don't remember that ever happening.Doogie wrote:Yep, it's almost impossible to get anymore and was all but wiped out by instrument makers in the 1800's and early 1900's. I bought it in log form many years back and it was ridiculously expensive. It's hard to tell it apart from Mopane visually, some pieces, but sounds different. I sent some to a flute maker Patrick Olwell? Ollwell? a few months ago and some to a whistle maker in Australia. I'll send you a piece if you want to try it. Anytime I do an eBay search for cocuswood I see old flutes or Pakistan made instruments called "Cocus" which is not. I was going to make bagpipes from what I have but I figured I could do more whistles from the stuff and make it go further.brewerpaul wrote: From what I understand, genuine Cocuswood is quite rare and other species are sometimes sold to unsuspecting instrument makers as Cocus.
The closest wood I've seen and used is Mopane which is a terrific woodwind material and not prohibited.
I have one PM and address from a volunteer for the Whistle Tour. I think the advise to keep it in my home country might be a good one, USA, or at least do it here first so it's not going through customer over and over. MY main concern when I asked about how to go about this was the first volunteer keeping it and disappearing into the night so I figured you guys know everyone on here? I know some of you from my years as a Uilleann Pipemaker. I want to do it soon but I want to do a few more tweaks before I'm ready as this is only Whistle #6. In the meantime I'll get a list going for the tour.
Seth
brewerpaul wrote:BTW-- why not Cocus for the whole whistle? Pieces not big enough probably.