ennischanter wrote:
BTW how liberal could I be with reed measurements, is trial and error required?
I have found measurements to be largely trial and error. There are typically measurements that a particular chanter likes, but depending on the cane used and how you make the reed, there could be variations throughout. For example, I made some reeds I hoped to used in a bass reg, but they turned out to be too sharp. I didn't really have measurements to aim for with the bass reg reed, since the reed had arrived damaged. For kicks I threw the same reeds in the first chanter I purchased, and the reeds played excellent! And the reeds were much larger than previous reeds I had used in that chanter. When I make reeds for a chanter I'm unfamiliar with, I start with a guess, maybe making a few different sizes of reeds at once, then go from there.
Also regarding materials/tools, I found most of my materials from random local and online stores. There are a couple specialty items that can be harder to find, like the gouge or the channel blocks for gouging. I ended up finding a gouge on Amazon that works well. Some people make some of their own tools as well.