Chiff and Fipple Forums

I just wanted to thank everybody for the wonderful posts. So many useful ideas -- I will try to put them together and come up with something half-way decent. Maestro Casey Burn's comments were very reassuring. My main axe is fiddle, and I've been wood-shedding a lot lately in higher positions. I've ...

Many thanks for the replies! Maybe I should be trying for a straight bore instrument. I know Ralph Sweet (May His Name Be Praised) made some high-D fifes. There's a youtube video of a Japanese dude playing one and it sounds great. But that guy is a super accomplished player, I think he could make an...

Does anyone know anything about bore designs for conical-bore piccolos? I'm trying to make a short Irish flute that plays an octave above the standard D flute and running into some really interesting challenges. My starting point was a 12.5mm diameter headjoint, with a body that tapered as per 19th ...

If you've got a lathe and chucks and chistles, I expect you're good to go! Re timber: if you're in USA, hard maple (aka rock maple or sugar maple) is really abundant and cheap. You can buy 1" X 1" X 12" turning square from Bell Forest Products for 1.25$ a stick. To make the final prod...

If you have some wood working chops but haven't made any wind instruments, "The Amateur Wind Instrument Maker" by Trevor Robinson (University of Massachusetts Press) could be really useful. It's what got me started. Does your wood shop include a lathe? I use a Delta Midi lathe (1/2 hp moto...

A few months ago, I bought what was billed as a "vintage 70's Shaw pennywhistle" off ebay. Was he making whistles that long ago? The whistle (standard high-D) is a lovely bit of work. The carving of the wind-channel is very precise, and the fipple looks to me to be mopani -- I didn't think...