Persimmon Fife ???
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Persimmon Fife ???
Does anyone have an opinion on the quality of the persimmon fife, offered by copperman, as a fife for a beginner?
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Doing a search for "Persimmon Fife" revealed this and a few other mentions of it
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=150438#150438
Look for jim_mc’s post
http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?p=150438#150438
Look for jim_mc’s post
Never played one myself.jim_mc wrote: ...Maple and persimmon are lousy woods for fifes. The bore of these fifes will never be smooth enough to easily create a consistent, pleasant sound. The maple and persimmon fifes are good for nothing other than a wall decoration....
"Be not deceived by the sweet words of proverbial philosophy. Sugar of lead is a poison."
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Persimmon
Persimmon is in the ebony family. It's sometimes called "white ebony". And it's a traditional wood for golf woods (before everyone started using metal).
Texas persimmon is a small tree (Texas has lots of bushes) that is a relative of common persimmon and is not commercially available. There's a rumor about that it makes a good woodwind. Someday I'll get some and find out for sure.
That is, just on general principles I would expect common persimmon to be better than maple, but I have no direct experience.
Texas persimmon is a small tree (Texas has lots of bushes) that is a relative of common persimmon and is not commercially available. There's a rumor about that it makes a good woodwind. Someday I'll get some and find out for sure.
That is, just on general principles I would expect common persimmon to be better than maple, but I have no direct experience.
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Re: Persimmon
Very Interesting. I have a bunch of the Texas persimmon growing by my house, and hadn't thought of making anything from it other than walking sticks. One thing for sure, it'd qualify as a renewable resource, since when you cut it down it immediately sprouts new growth all around the stump.SoTX wrote:Persimmon is in the ebony family. It's sometimes called "white ebony". And it's a traditional wood for golf woods (before everyone started using metal).
Texas persimmon is a small tree (Texas has lots of bushes) that is a relative of common persimmon and is not commercially available. There's a rumor about that it makes a good woodwind. Someday I'll get some and find out for sure.
That is, just on general principles I would expect common persimmon to be better than maple, but I have no direct experience.
One possible mark against it is that it's a small and twisty tree. I'd think that getting flute size pieces of heartwood might be difficult, although I haven't really tried to work it much yet.
Here's an interesting article that describes the two species that are native to North America, along with the wood properties of the Common Persimmon:
http://www.windsorplywood.com/nam_hardw ... immon.html
Dow Mathis ∴
Boerne, TX
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently motivated fool.
Boerne, TX
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently motivated fool.
Persimmon is Ebony. I forget the technical name. Ebony is tropical slow growing (all good flute woods are very slow growing) tree. The outside is white, about half way through, and the inside is very dark. Practically all homesteads from the East Coast from FA to VA and on to TX had a small persimmon orchard. Now days if you see a persimmon orchard, look for an old homestead foundation around. Ebony is mostly used for fine furnature. The northern most reach of ebony is VA and is the slowest growing and closest grain.
Nelson
Nelson