Anyone interested in colorful whistles?

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sun May 08, 2005 10:42 am

I made a Yellowheart whistle for a board member who soon afterwards asked me if I could make him a yellow Delrin whistle: seems he has a Case knife with a yellow Delrin handle and thought this material would make a cool whistle. I tried searching for the material with no luck, but this fellow was more persistent. He found a supplier who carries:
RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, VIOLET, BLACK, WHITE & NATURAL (tannish, I think) acetal plastic, which is generic for Delrin.

I have an inquiry out to these people and hopefully they won't require huge minimum orders. I can see green/white whistles for NY Jets fans, blue/orange for Syracuse alumni and fans, all green for dyed in the wool Irishpeople, etc.

Is this something that people might seriously be interested in?

This same company also does CNC machining and I've asked for an estimate on making my normal metal fittings in black acetal. I made one whistle in birdseye maple with "handmade" black fittings and it was quite striking in a sort of Japanese way. Other light colored woods would look good this way too.

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Sun May 08, 2005 11:05 am

Shewt, Paul, why don't you simply offer a rainbow set - mix and match heads and bodies if you want - for a reduced price!

billw · Post by **billw** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:18 pm

Hey, Paul, nobody likes colored whistles! You should know that by now!

(hey, do they make tubing in the colors??)

Bill Whedon

IrishLass · Post by **IrishLass** » Sun May 08, 2005 2:59 pm

I think having a colored whistle would be really cool! (Provided that the price was right).

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Sun May 08, 2005 3:08 pm

brewerpaul wrote:Is this something that people might seriously be interested in?

Well, Paul, if you had been offering those colors when I ordered my Delrin whistle last year, I probably would've ordered it in green (since that's my favorite color), depending on the shade.

Cheers,
John

IDAwHOa · Post by **IDAwHOa** » Sun May 08, 2005 5:20 pm

I think that CLEAR would be a good color. Then we might be able to solve C&F's unsolved Mystery #1:

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/mysteries/mysteries.htm

Unseen122 · Post by **Unseen122** » Sun May 08, 2005 6:15 pm

Who doesn't like a bit of color now and then?

It is a good idea I hope it goes over well. I know M & E uses colored Derlin for some of his whistles.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Sun May 08, 2005 7:41 pm

IDAwHOa wrote:I think that CLEAR would be a good color. Then we might be able to solve C&F's unsolved Mystery #1:

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/mysteries/mysteries.htm

I dunno. If you can't tell condensation from drool when it's flung onto a bodhran, how will you be able to tell them apart inside the whistle?

Clear would be cool if it could be frosted, though.

tubafor · Post by **tubafor** » Mon May 09, 2005 8:54 am

I'd be up for a purple one... Of course, if you ask Daniel Bingamon, he'll tell you all about my obsession with purple whistles... Used to be a picture on his site of one of his Basswhistles in purple - which is now in my studio.

Purple delrin? Honey? It's time to beef up the savings account again!

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:03 am

IDAwHOa wrote:I think that CLEAR would be a good color. Then we might be able to solve C&F's unsolved Mystery #1:

http://www.chiffandfipple.com/mysteries/mysteries.htm

That one's solvable if you get yerself a clear plastic r*c*rd*r.

dfernandez77 · Post by **dfernandez77** » Mon May 09, 2005 12:49 pm

Sounds dandy!

I think the challenge will be material inventory cost vs. price to the consumer.

Sorry to get all business like on you.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Tue May 10, 2005 7:33 pm

dfernandez77 wrote:Sounds dandy!
I think the challenge will be material inventory cost vs. price to the consumer.
Sorry to get all business like on you.

Business is business, alas.
I talked to the plastics supplier today. This stuff costs $6.50 per foot, which is on a par with some of the wood I use. Of course Delrin would be much less prone to splitting than a costly piece of Snakewood or Pink Ivory.
The bad news is that I can't just buy a foot of each color I want. If they have it in stock, I can get a four footer. Special orders are a minimum of EIGHT FEET!
I'd love to try this if I got enough people interested in any given color-- not necessarily enough to use up an entire piece, but at least most of it...
If anyone is seriously interested in a particular color, please e-mail me and I'll keep a tally and see if I get enough interest to make it worth the expense.

raindog1970 · Post by **raindog1970** » Tue May 10, 2005 7:49 pm

brewerpaul wrote:This stuff costs $6.50 per foot...

Yikes!

Is that the price for 5/8" diameter?
If so, that's like 3X the price of black!
The minimum order requirement I can kind of understand, but I don't see how they can justify such a price increase for nothing more than a different color of the exact same material.

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Tue May 10, 2005 8:22 pm

raindog1970 wrote:
brewerpaul wrote:This stuff costs $6.50 per foot...
Yikes! Is that the price for 5/8" diameter?
If so, that's like 3X the price of black!
The minimum order requirement I can kind of understand, but I don't see how they can justify such a price increase for nothing more than a different color of the exact same material.

That's 1", which is the smallest they carry. Part of the cost is the fact that it's "medical grade", so if you need to perform a blood transfusion with your whistle, this is the stuff to use...

slowair · Post by **slowair** » Tue May 10, 2005 8:57 pm

Is there a way to get samples of the colors?

Mike

Chiff and Fipple Forums

Anyone interested in colorful whistles?

Anyone interested in colorful whistles?

Heyyyyyyy!!!

Re: Anyone interested in colorful whistles?