Good day all,
I was involved in a discussion the other evening with O’Corrigan and we were pondering as to whether or not there are any NA hardwoods that are suitable for making chanters. I believe that Neil O’Grady has used maple. But what about white oak or perhaps ash. Does anybody have any experience with these or any other species that are available locally?
Karl
Hi Ex-T,
While I have not personally tried Oak, the train of thought here is that the grains are very coarse and as a result would influence your initial pilot boring to bend.
Cheers,
CJ
It seems to be commonly agreed upon that NA woods like hard maple just don’t have sufficient density to match the resonance of African Blackwood or ebony. Someone had once posted a site where different types of wood and their relative densities were listed. I suppose if you got the specific density of ebony, and then used that as a goal, you could compare against the various NA woods to find something close.
I know Joe Kennedy was using hard maple for mock-ups when he was working on his initial bore designs (much cheaper than burning through that much ebony) but he would not sacrifice tone just to use a cheaper wood when it came time to produce commercially.
djm
My next chanter will be out of balsa. 
(rubber band powered too!)
Density seems important, but fineness of grain is important to getting a nice smooth bore, too. That’s where things like ash and oak fall short IMO.
There may be a few North American hardwoods that are both dense enough and fine-grained, but probably not any that are “traded commercially”. I seem to recall “mountain mahogany” as having a good rep, but it’s scarce too, as is madrone which might work. Perhaps one of the locust woods would be worth trying?
There are also ‘european’ species such as holly, and imports like lilac that might suit, if you can find a tree that needs felling and can afford to wait for it to season.
Bill
Gereman type bassoons are generaly made of maple, the best being mountain maple, Berg Ahorn, from former Yugoslavia. Fox also use North American Black Maple which is denser with more projection and Sugar Maple which gives a brighter sound.
I don’t know how well maple would translate to UPs. From a durability point of view it is prone to cracking around very thin ferrules and the tone holes on a bassoon wear unless they are lined with metal or rubber. A good maple maple basoon is very resonant - no less so in my experience than the French or German rosewood models, but whether the realtively smaller mass of a UP chanter would sound as well I don’t know.
Has anyone tried Basswood?
Yes, for chip carving. 
djm
mountain mahogany
mesquite
Texas ebony
desert ironwood
?kingwood (I think there may be some in the US- not sure though)
Re: maple
Highland pipe maker Sinclair used to make a lot of drones and chanters from hard maple with excellent results (with regards to tone and durability). Makes you wonder…
Another wood that I’ve wondered about is mediterranean olive. It is a bit lighter than other common woods (blackwood and ebony) but certainly denser than maple (maybe along the same lines as boxwood). Anyway, it is being grown in certain areas of California and maybe Oregon. It’s a strikingly beautiful wood, and I bet that it might work for pipes. I’m pretty sure that Desi Seery has made a flute out of it in the past. At least that’s what it appears to be from a picture on his website. I wonder how it turned out? adios
Don’t forget the Horse apple tree, that stuffs hard as a rock, just don’t eat the apples… 
… I think the commercial name is Osage Orange or something like that… I’t has another local name but I forgot what it is..
… now why do I see red flags, hear sirens, bells and whistles when I read Osage Orange? I seem to recall…
Bois d’Arc. It used to be used for hedges, a kind of living barbed wire, for enclosing cattle.
Mountain mahog is very tough to come by. Steve Allely, a piper in central Oregon, has collected some on his own for use in pipes. There’s very little interest in it I guess.
There’s a Texas species of Lignum vitae. Don’t know if it grows into useful sizes. Childress said in an interview he turned stuff out of a felled persimmon tree (genus Diospyros, same as the ebonies). The Amateur Woodwind maker book mentions hard maple as a possible substitute for boxwood. Perhaps some of these less dense but fine-grained woods could be pressure treated into something approximating the tropical woods.
Olivewood is harder than snot! Zampogna (Zampognie?) are turned from olive and heath wood, Erica arborea, which is the standard wood for smoking pipes, too.
→ Start forestry lesson:
… well that tree ( Acer pseudoplatanus L.) grows well throughout central Europe in slightly higher altitudes on rich soils. It’s a nice light coloured and hard wood. Density is about 0.61 g / cm3. The wood is only used for in-door purposes as it’s not resistant to pests.
When the tree is growing really slowly it forms a special wood patters, which is called “Riegelahorn” in German. These logs achive really high prices on timber auctions and are used for veneers and furnitures.
→ End forestry lesson.
(P.S.: Sorry … couldn’t help … I’m a forester and planted many of these trees during my field work times.)
If you want to hear what a maple chanter sounds like try here
http://www.uilleann-pipes.com/
maple chanter with brass and plastic drones.
David
You guys across the water there, have plenty of white holly, 
I have just turned and reamed two holly chanter blanks, holly makes lovely drones,I use it for stocks also,the holly chanter gives a lovely warm tone, you can always stain the wood down to a colour you prefer, if you don’t like the true holly colour, and its cheap too, 
I pay around £1.50p for a 18"inch x 1.5"inch chanter blank, 
for that sort of money you can afford to make loads of half sets and chanters,it turns and ream’s easily,and give’s a lovely finish, I “wood” totaly recommend “hollywood”, 
infact, 
I love holly. 
There are many native woods in the US that will/do work for Uillean Pipes…
Texas lignum vitae (Guaiacum angustifolium) grows in South Texas as a small bush and is not commercially common (as lumber) but is as dense as the other LV’s - making it well qualified if you can find it. I think there is a breed that grows in southern Florida as well, but is it protected?
Texas ebony (Pithecellobium ebano) is more common commercially, is a common as far north as San Antonio, is a relative of the mesquite family and dense (SG greater than 1), takes a high polish and ages to a dark chocolate brown, but is a bit rough of grain. But it is okay for UP’s as density grows.
Texas persimmon (Diospyrus texana) has not been mentioned by anyone and is in the persimmon family, unlike texas ebony. Texas persimmon is one of two members of the diospyrus that grow in the US, the other being common Virigina persimmon. Unlike VP, which is mostly sapwood, texas persimmon has a black heart wood. I have a piece that I found that looks just like regular ebony. It too is commercially rare, though it grows to be the size of a large crepe myrtal, and I’d think harvestable. It is most common to south Texas but supposedly grows as far north as Oklahoma. The largest I have seen are along the Gulf Coast, near Corpus Christi, TX. I talked to one lumber place there once and the guy said they occationally carried it, and the wood is black.
Osage orange/Bois d’arc/horse apple (Maclura pomifera) is commercially common, is a bit rough of grain but can have a SG well over 1.0 - it can be beautiful though the bright yellow color can be a turn off for many traditional types. But it darkens with age to brown. It is native to the SE.
Mesquites are not too dense - generally like a hard maple, but are very pourous, unlike maple. But there is likely something that will work out there - grows in the SW.
Brad Angus used to us Mountain Mahogony, so it must have worked.
Desert Ironwood is endangered (and not available) isn’t it?
Doesn’t David Quinn have a maple set on some site? Very hard maple will approach 0.9 so it can likely be made to work.
Thats the stuff Kevin thanks…
looks like this
Kirk Lynch’s personal chanter is made out of American Pear (from a tree that fell in his neighbor’s yard). This is an awesome sounding chanter.
Jeff
It’s great to see people thinking about native timbers, and don’t forget your native Elders although I think some are endangered.
Try native (or the European variety that is naturalised) Phragmites australis for Drone reeds; it’s a great material and takes little preparation.
John S