Oz whistle in Masur bjørk ( curly birch )

[PhilO]

You know, the man just does really beautiful work and that wouldn't mean much (to me) if his whistles weren't also well voiced. Nice to know there are new makers on the scene who will continue the tradition of those well known and much revered makers.

Philo

[talasiga]

I am beginning to feel he voices his whistles better than he voices his thoughts .........

[Mitch]

I am beginning to feel he voices his whistles better than he voices his thoughts .........

That depends on the Guinness. Most times, the thoughts can't be expressed, but Guinness makes me try ... I never attempt to voice a whistle in the presence of Guinness (that comes later )

The whistles can be expressed. Once expressed they continue to express themselves and the player.

The Masurbjork pieces were a journey of exploration. This wood is not a tonewood - it is too soft to simply cut, bore and oil. All I could do was to cut it and follow what it wanted. The sealant is non-traditional. In the tradition, this wood is treated with linseed oil and polished. Linseed is very "filly", what I used was nitrocelulose because of the resulting hardness that is required from a whistle. The wood has small voids around the dark markings - when the billets were bored and turned, one could easily draw air through the sides. So they were dipped in 1:4 thinned nitrocellulose up to 20 times to get sufficient penetration and seal. Each bath took 1 hour waiting for the bubbles to stop and took as many baths as needed to completely oclude the pores. At the end of each bath, the dried skin on the bath surface had to be removed to extract the piece without contaminating the surface (nitrocellulose penetrates quickly but dries very fast). The result was sanded to within .002mm to allow some surface gloss. With that, there are still some deep grain dimples on the result - I kind of like that - the holographic effect in the side-grains is retained and the fore-grain features are nicely promoted.

After sealing, the tubes were oiled and sat for 2 months. During that time, the grain continued to season (nitrocelulose is semi-permeable and allows a little moisture exchange to continue). When you cut any piece of wood - no matter how old - a wall thickness of 2mm reactivates the seasoning process - it's best it sits a while before getting used for anything. What happened was that some shrinkage happened - the lighter parts of the wood shrank more than the dark. This resulted in a chaotic dimpling in the bore (even after re-boring). The dimpling has an affect on the final voice - being chaotic, there's no telling which nodes and anti-nodes got influenced - the D whistle has a feature on the sound-blade that introduced a turbulence in the voice, it plays well, but will probably always be a bit breathy, the C whistle has a value that is difficult to put in words. When voicing that whistle, I was surprised by the agressive undertone - reminds me of the way Norwegian folk songs turn so easily into death-metal rock!

The color will continue to darken. I notice that the darkening process is accelerated by oiling - even through the sealant. I suspect that exposure to sunlight will also hasten the darkening. At some point the darkening will stop - being such a blonde wood, I think it will always retain the figure.

Personally, I feel that an unembellished metal trim would be an insult to the wood - what nature has created deserved an effort in the framing. The brass will age as the wood ages - the recesses will tend to green and the surface will become bright yellow, the tonehoes will become worn and stained with use. with new contrast occuring over time.

What I am curious about is how the sound evolves - sound clips please!!

[breqwas]

And still no soundclips.

[chrisp]

What I am curious about is how the sound evolves - sound clips please!!

And still no soundclips.

I have never recorded, let alone posted sound clips on my computer before I wouldn't know where to start

[PhilO]

Mitch - that process sounded particularly arduous and painstaking, as well as probably requiring wearing a decent respirator (I guess for any wood). I know it differs somewhat wood to wood as to the difficulty in lathing, curing, sanding, finishing, etc., but how does the turning and finishing of wood generally compare to the same process for delrin?

Philo

[DrPhill]

I am finding this thread fascinating. I have done some wood carving and think it one of the nicest of materials. One day I want to have a whistle of wood. The pictures make me gasp with envy and admiration. Lovely work Mitch, lucky man Chris.

Mitch, have you made one from yew wood? I carved a walking stick from some. It started more than 100mm thick and I reduced it to about 30+-5mm to reveal the boundary between the dark and light. It looks like curls of smoke in places. Would yew be a good wood for a whistle? How would I need to season it (2,3,4 years)? The bit I used sat in my shed for several years, and seems very stable - no cracks, no extra bending, and it is a six foot stick! I couldn't bear to lose any of the grain by cutting it shorter. I have a tree to cut some from (my parents house) but what size is needed? How long would I need to save to get you to make one for me?

I reckon that, if I practice whistling very hard, by the time the wood is seasoned and I can afford the job I may just, almost, be good enough to deserve it.

But if not, then I can dream cant I?

[Steamwalker]

Simon Weston made whistles out of Yew so I am sure it would be suitable. Simon's website seems out of commission though so I am not sure if he still makes them.

[Mitch]

PhilO, I always wear a respirator if there's any likelyhood of dust or toxic vapors. With sealants, I do that work outdoors. The nitrocellulose is very finicky - it needs humidity less than 70% and temperature greater than 20 degrees (C) or it will blush. The thinners are particularly toxic and can penetrate skin. With the respirator, eye protectors, ear protectors, magnifier-headpiece, gloves etc. My neighbors probably think I'm some kind of mutant Darth Vader
Delrin has few surprises - there are different pros and cons with delrin - not counting the seasoning period, it takes around the same time to prepare. With machining, Delrin produces an anoying swarf that is hard to clear, it melts if it gets hot, it is difficult to get an even finish and it cannot be glued using standard adhesives.

DrPhil, Simon Styles used a lot of woods with great results - including Yew. He would be the man to ask. Generally, your logs should be cut while the sap is falling - before mid-Winter and have the ends sealed with undercoat or beeswax. 4-5 years should do it, but it will then need to be billeted and kept another year to see what it does. I believe Yew was the wood of choice for the famous English longbow, so it should be stable enough to make a whistle - not sure how it would behave with wet breath, so it should probably be sealed somehow.

[Tommy]

Simon Weston made whistles out of Yew so I am sure it would be suitable. Simon's website seems out of commission though so I am not sure if he still makes them.

I have made several whistles of yew wood, and did exchange PM's with Simon (jetboy) about the tendency of the yew wood to bow/warp. The piece I had was obviously from a branch with plenty of knots and not from a tree trunk. He had made whistles of yew and a few did bow/warp for him. It seems when wood comes from a branch it has sort of tendons on one side to keep it from drooping when growing on the tree. Then when it is cut and made into something it still has that memory. As Mitch said each time wood is removed from a piece it should rest to see what it is going to do. But after waiting several months then boring the tone hole, and letting it rest. If the bore shrinks it can be bored out to size. But if it bows trying to rebore it could result in an oversize bore in the middle. I had two that bowed and tried putting the tone holes on the concave side on one, and the convex side of the other. Neither came back straight or got worse. Cutting to install the tuning slide did help to create the illusion of it being straight, but they are still bowed. That being said the wood from the branch is very attractive with the cinnamon mist appearing swirls around the knots. The knots produce a high shine and gives this wood an appearance of depth. As with any hardwood it is no secret that tools must be sharp. However when cutting this yew wood in a lathe care should be taken with small depth of cuts to accommodate going from easy cutting wood to crossing a hard knot.

[Loren]

Simon Weston made whistles out of Yew so I am sure it would be suitable. Simon's website seems out of commission though so I am not sure if he still makes them.

Just because someone has made an instrument out of a particular wood doesn't mean the wood is suitable for instruments.

I often see relatively new makers (less than 8-10 years experience) using all sorts of woods that I know are unsuitable for the purpose. Unfortunately you often don't learn until the whistles start coming back cracked and or severely warped.

More experienced makers aren't immune either: Sometimes as wood availability changes one is forced to seek alternatives, which can be very hit or miss. My former employer found this out the hard way with Thai Boxwood for example: Looks and turns virtually identical to Euro Box, however when exposed directly to moisture via breath, it nearly always cracks when made into an instrument. Real bummer when you've already bought a ton of logs

Loren

[Loren]

P.S. Nice looking whistles Mitch! Interesting choice going with the Nitro.......

The bands are cast, or perhaps laser engraved?

How are you stamping the serial numbers? It looks as if you could use an indexing head, to keep everything lined up and spaced out evenly.

Loren

[brewerpaul]

With Delrin, that swarf is one continuous ribbon. When I turn the stuff, I quickly grab the ribbon when it first starts to come off and then gather it in my hands as it comes off the tool. If I'm lucky, I can get a whole pass of the lathe carriage gathered without any of it wrapping around the spinning work.

Try wet sanding the Delrin as it spins with 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper, then down to 600. I haven't tried anything finer, 'cause I like the matte finish that 600 produces. Doesn't show scratches very much.

[Steamwalker]

Simon Weston* made whistles out of Yew so I am sure it would be suitable. Simon's website seems out of commission though so I am not sure if he still makes them.

Just because someone has made an instrument out of a particular wood doesn't mean the wood is suitable for instruments.

It's not just that Simon had made an instrument from it but that it was one of the few common timbers he regularly used and stocked and didn't charge extra for. That, to me, would imply suitability. I've never played a yew whistle so I have no personal experience as to it's qualities so take that for what it's worth.

*My apologies to Simon for misstating his name, I assumed the Weston in his whistle name came from his surname.

[BigDavy]

Hi Steamwalker

I have a Bleazey high D in yew and it sounds lovely (when somebody else plays it ), I have never seen another whistle in yew though.

David