Pipemaker Bill Haneman

uilleannfinlander · Post by **uilleannfinlander** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 6:22 am

Aand again , anybody playing with his sets? Comments please.

Thies · Post by **Thies** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:44 am

Is Bill really making pipes?!? Sounds more like he's playing them.

http://xml.apache.planetmirror.com/batik/whoAreWe.html wrote:# Bill Haneman bill.haneman ]at[ ireland.sun.com
Bill Haneman works for Sun Microsystems' Desktop Enabling Middleware group in Dublin, Ireland, and implemented much of the Batik's text support (though not SVG Fonts, thanks Bella, Dean, and David!). He is also technical lead for the Gnome Accessibility Project (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap), an open project to provide an accessibility framework for linux and Solaris(TM) desktops. A twenty-year veteran of scientific programming and application development, he is a US expatriate who plays traditional Irish music on the uilleann pipes.

uilleannfinlander · Post by **uilleannfinlander** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:50 am

Cormac Cannon (irish piper) recommended,.... and just noticed that he is as " Billh " on this forum.

MarcusR · Post by **MarcusR** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:53 am

Hi Mikko!

I have a set on order from Bill, so I can't give you any comments on his work as it is still little more than six months to delivery.
If you're interested I can let you know exactly why I placed my order with Bill and not one of the others on my list, but I rather do that by PM.
I spent a good six month before I decided who to order from and I took the liberty to ask advice and opinions from quite a few
experienced players and pipe makers.
The response was unambiguous, Bill seems to be well respected both as a maker, player and contributor to the piping community.
Communication and interactions so far has been excellent and I really feel that he understands what I'm looking for in a new set even though I haven't been able to express it in pipemaking terms.
Send me a PM or mail if you want more info.

/MarcusR

Thies wrote:Is Bill really making pipes?!? Sounds more like he's playing them.

He has unofficially been taking orders for a year or so, and I'm sure we will hear a lot more about him as a maker in the future.

/MarcusR

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:23 am

Anything of Bill's that I have tried (about 4 or 5 chanters and a set or two of drones) has been excellent, or on the verge of being excellent (I must stress that a couple of things were designs/works in progress).

I look forward to seeing/hearing his stuff in good hands.

Regards,

Harry.

billh · Post by **billh** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:17 am

Uh-oh, I guess my cover is well and truly blown now.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm endeavouring to "do it right". So far I'm very happy with my C# work, the concert pitch stuff is satisfying but still being tweaked, and I'm pretty comfortable with C chanters. B is in the works and narrow-bore-D is still a work in progress. I prefer doing near-replicas of historic chanters FWIW, in which case I have good models to work from.

I'll keep you posted,

Bill

Hans-Joerg · Post by **Hans-Joerg** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:48 am

Bill,
how about posting some pics of some of your products?

billh · Post by **billh** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:31 am

Hans-Joerg wrote:Bill,
how about posting some pics of some of your products?

Hmm, was planning to wait until I had put a web site together, etc.

I'll see what I can do in the meantime.

Bill

billh · Post by **billh** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:27 pm

For now, feel free to visit my ImageStation album, with pictures of recent projects and restoration work.
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictu ... 2117208264

I haven't posted pics of all sets pending permission from the owners. Believe it or not, I have been tending not to take pictures of the completed sets before parting with them! I really should do a better job of that.

Here are a few from the album:

Two boxwood and antler replacement drones, as part of a set c1790:

Drones from a C# set in ebony and silver, not yet assembled:

Assembled C# drones in pearwood

Here's a C chanter in pearwood and boxwood;

Concert pitch chanter in ebony and boxwood:

Bass drone for concert pitch:

Bill

Hans-Joerg · Post by **Hans-Joerg** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:31 am

Lovely jobs! Thanks! There are too few pics of restaurations anyhow and I think more of them should be supplied.
Cheers,
Hans

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:45 am

Beautiful work Bill, and very true to Coyne design.... from what I can see.

texasbagpiper · Post by **texasbagpiper** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:31 am

Bill you should show pics more often.... I really like your key work on those regulator replacement keys, and the drone stop key... Nice stuff...

billh · Post by **billh** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:40 am

Thanks Seth.

Actually the top 'replacement' key ended up not making the grade, version #2 (below) was selected as more in keeping with the original keywork. #1 is still a viable key shape I suppose.

texasbagpiper · Post by **texasbagpiper** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:52 am

The keys look so graceful, I guess I'm doing it the hard way, hack saw and grinding... I need to get a small metal cutting band saw

billh · Post by **billh** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 10:59 am

While I am roughing the keys out on a cheap bandsaw with a fine-toothed blade, I am doing most of the work with files. Nothing fancy, just time-consuming

I occasionally use some forging techniques, long-term I think hand-forging (as opposed to roughing-out with a saw) is probably the best choice and also is more conserving of material.

Watch those fingers

Bill

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