Clogging, Toothpaste, Etc.

The second approach is more ore less what an English flageolet does. Not sure why it was abandoned for whistles, because it strikes me as a very good idea, at least in the absence of a better solution.

We have regulatory guidelines about makers presenting their products on C&F. Please see https://forums.chiffandfipple.com/t/c-f-consolidated-concordat-on-policy-cccp/78337/1 , entry 7. If you have further questions, feel free to contact either Ben or myself.

Thank you for advice and the link to forum rules.

The wax causes water droplets to form on the surface. Droplets make the air flow weak. Brightness is lost. The volume drops. The lower notes sound bad.

The flageolet, or rather its chamber, removes very little water.

The anterior chamber must be as long as a transverse flute to be effective :wink:

In addition, it makes bad the responsiveness of the whistle in the second octave.

I could modify the metal whistle, like Overton, to be condensate free. But this is very - very strange idea :wink:

The simplest thing you can do is a small heater (resistor) and a battery. It will be view like microphone :wink: I wanted to do this many years old to play in winter!

Maybe because for a long time, it wasn’t needed?

High whistles with plastic heads, once they came along, rarely clogged enough to cause problems. Blow them out between sets and you’re sorted. It’s the reason I prefer Delrin heads now. The air-efficient ones with narrower windways seem to clog slightly more readily than the Generation type, but it’s still not enough to matter much.

:astonished:

Well then, my dreams of having a perfect whistle just might be possible haha.

I dunno, my susatos used to clog a decent amount. Enough to be annoying, anyway. And my McManus has a delrin head and clogs even more. Clearing the windway fixes the issue, but I don’t want to clear the windway in the middle of playing. If I’m playing something like McCleod’s Farewell, it’s very annoying to lose all my volume on the first-octave D by the time I’m playing through the tune a second.

Somehow I missed that post - I was responding to a mention of Teflon. I had wondered about having tiny holes leading away from the windway to some place where the water could evaporate away, but they’d be prone to clogging up over time. How long does your material go on working for before the surface becomes too clogged up with gunk to function? If this is a problem, perhaps there would be a way to remove and replace the material lining the windway from one end. That could potentially be sold in standard sizes for the roof and floor while being designed to fit the whistles from any manufacturers that want to use it.

The solution I’m currently using has been working for many years. I don’t wash the whistles I play. For the sake of the purity of the experiment.
Other manufacturers, if they wanted, could have built condensation-free into their whistles a long time ago :wink:
The only manufacturer is Mollenhauer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd8qT8MppsY
I really liked their flute - maybe I’ll repeat it.
I showed a video of my first experiment. Now I’m using a different technology. I remove condensation from the top and bottom! She’s not noticeable. For example, you see a Chieftain (my fave whistle!) or an Overtone. And you will not find any differences from the original. But they will no longer become clogged with condensation!

I didn’t watch the whole video, but jumped to the parts that sounded most likely to contain a bit about that. The one at 7:20 in was well worth seeing - an adjustable windway that you can squeeze closed while playing - but I didn’t find any bit about moisture problems.

I showed a video of my first experiment. Now I’m using a different technology. I remove condensation from the top and bottom! She’s not noticeable. For example, you see a Chieftain (my fave whistle!) or an Overtone. And you will not find any differences from the original. But they will no longer become clogged with condensation!

Is this something you’ve patented, or is it some material you don’t want to name because you can’t patent its use for this?

The Melenhauer flute uses a patented material - synpor - as a block.

I don’t patent what belongs to nature. I know that no one will do this. Why? Why don’t the Chinese make Irish flutes? Because they cannot be made in hundreds. Right?

I believe I finally found something that works to reduce clogging on my Goldie. If I spray Dawn dish soap not inside the windway, but just outside it, on the area where it opens up to create the window, it seems to reduce clogging dramatically. I believe what was happening is that water was beading up right at that opening, which was negatively affecting playability.

I guess it just goes to show you that you should thoroughly investigate what the problem is before giving up. :slight_smile:

I just got a new McManus D whistle which is great, but it clogs after just a moment of playing. I’m going to try detergent, applied by a dental pick. Is this how people use detergent? Is this also how you also apply toothpaste?

jenfen—

Doesn’t the McManus have a delrin mouthpiece? I might be mistaken, but I think most of the anti-clogging methods/tips are for aluminum (alloy) whistles. Seems to me that Dupenol, toothpaste, etc. wouldn’t work too well on delrin. I’ve had several Goldies and have dealt with it for years. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of info on this forum about the problem & suggested solutions. You can search for ‘clogging’ and see what info comes up.

cheers
stiofan

Have you really warmed it up and played it for a while, and it still clogs? My experience with McManus whistles is that once they’re warmed up, they don’t clog that much. They still clog a tiny bit, but it usually isn’t very detrimental to the sound when they do.

I’ve never had serious clogging issues with whistles that have plastic fipple blocks, but I don’t see any particular reason why household chemicals containing surfactants wouldn’t work on plastic, if they work on aluminum. Don’t surfactants have the same effect on moisture, regardless of the material they coat?