So, I've working on making these whistles using my 3d printer. I've sold a few. I've opened an Etsy Shop where I sell them occasionally. People who've gotten them have said positive things, and my videos on Facebook and the like are getting positive commentary. So, I'm going to limit myself to talking about them except in the sanctioned monthly CP post.
My most recent sale, a custom color job for a man in Germany. This was made with a new material: PLA-wood. It's a standard PLA plastic impregnated with 30% wood fiber. It smells like wood. When 3d printing, it smells like someone's using a woodburning set (you know, those things that were so popular in the 70s. Ah, the nostalgia). Rather than being slick, like plastic, it has a slightly rough/woody texture on the finish. I quite like it. Unfortunately, it's about twice as expensive as regular PLA.
I did some experimentation, and posted a few videos places, and someone reached out to see if I could make a whistle that looked more like the "traditional" style, with a small black mouthpiece, but the rest of the whistle head made in that same wood PLA. He wanted the ferrules to be in a kind of "galvanized steel" that I'd experimented with a week or so ago, and wanted a ferrule at the foot of the whistle and not just the tuning slide.
So, after a bit of design in the ol' CAD software, this is what I came up with:
