Jon Swayne Low D Whistle in boxwood

[Loren]

"Re-set"? What is that?

[gariwerd]

fiddled with.

[Loren]

Okayyyyyyy......

[gariwerd]

LOL. I don't really know what Mitch did. The guy just said he'd recently sent it to Mitch who'd done some work on it. It played easily and had a very nice warm tone. From what Jem has said it does sound like his is a somewhat different beast.

[Loren]

Ah, voodoo! Why didn't you say so

[jemtheflute]

Ah, voodoo!

That sounds like the Stick we know and love, saving his absence.......

[Mitch]

"Re-set"? What is that?

Hi Loren,

The Swayne blackwood low D has some design characteristics similar to recorders .. I got the fluff off of the fipple block and re-set it .. General clean and polish.

I am reticent to do adjustments on the work of others - specially if they are living .. this is something which I believe is best done by the author.

In this case, it was not much more than a matter of cleaning it all up.
That said, the windway exit bevel was quite furry. I repeated the bevel angle and shaved the fipple block face to retain the original setting as well as possible. That process included finding the resonant point - as I am sure Swayne did in the original making.
I'm very impressed by his work!

[Loren]

Ah, well that clears it up Mitch! Being a maker yourself, I was having a hard time imagining that you'd gone and done any sort of major modifications to the Swayne. And yeah, gunked up/roughed up block will definitely impede proper airflow and diminish sound quality to be sure! Can't say I miss the days of doing that sort of work, some of those blocks and wind ways I had to clean were disgusting!

Hope all is well in your world Mitch.

Cheers,

Loren

[Mitch]

...
Can't say I miss the days of doing that sort of work, some of those blocks and wind ways I had to clean were disgusting!

Hope all is well in your world Mitch.

Cheers,

Loren

Yes .. you know how it is, some never get told that wood needs maintenance, others are devout, but most just say "what the hell" and it all goes South after a year or 2.

I note that oboe players in orchestras often swab and clean their blackwood/silver oboe when their part has nothing to do for a few minutes .. maybe it's the $20,000+ investment they are protecting?

Shame we can't charge that much for a whistle

My world? .. All is well in Wombatistan .. it must be, I'm making more whistles.

It's quirky though - there's a kind of wasp here that likes to stuff 20 or so comatose spiders into high D whistles .. gotta be careful .. the spiders wreck the humidity and cause cracks.

How is it in your world?

[ytliek]

...
Can't say I miss the days of doing that sort of work, some of those blocks and wind ways I had to clean were disgusting!

Hope all is well in your world Mitch.

Cheers,

Loren

Yes .. you know how it is, some never get told that wood needs maintenance, others are devout, but most just say "what the hell" and it all goes South after a year or 2.

That doesn't get mentioned often enough for the wood whistle/flute owners. Just take proper care of the wood, simple.

[Mitch]

...
That doesn't get mentioned often enough for the wood whistle/flute owners. Just take proper care of the wood, simple.

Proper is a very flexible word

But a great excuse for a random rant! :

Generally, wood never dies until it is consumed by something .. it has a specific structure that reacts to various environmental signals.
The reaction will depend on the species of wood - the most obvious reaction is movement.
If that movement is too sudden (in wood-time) then the fibres might part company - i.e. crack.
If it is slow enough, the tensions are adjusted according to the species response process.

For instance, boxwood has a strong movement response and is very good at re-adjusting to movement - the flutes in museums are notorious for crawling off the display shelf. Like most wood, boxwood responds to humidity.
I had a piece of Cambodian ebony that responded to sunlight .. behaved in peristaltic waves.

In tonewoods, the primary motive to move is humidity - so the trick is to slow it down to wood-time.

Hence we swab and oil.
Swab is the most urgent measure - water in the bore .. well .. that's over 100% humidity and will get in through everything eventually .. the oil slows this down long enough to play the whistle for a bit.
But if you put away a wet whistle, there's a good chance it won't be a whistle when you come back for it.

If you forget to oil, then the whistle might stop being a whistle mid-tune. It's all about timing.

Another factor to consider is air temperature. Cold air is very dry - even at 100% humidity, much dryer than warm air.
Cold nights kill a lot of whistles - here's why:
When you warm-up a whistle, it will comply to the ambient humidity of your breath - i.e. near 100%.
The interior of the whistle becomes a micro-climate. If it is laid down, the internal microclimate quickly rebalances with the ambient climate - all the moisture goes out in a rush. The wood will dance chaotic arabesques according to its nature.
Only a bit of oil will keep this dance civilised .. wild things are great, but not always appropriate. .. for example, goats like to climb onto humpy-shaped cars .. like Volkswagens .. (the old sort)

Special note for oil - some oil interferes with the natural wood oils - and very thin parts of the instrument (edge of sound-blade) can become de-natured (turn to jelly) over time, if the ramp gets too much oil.

Avoid oils that encourage colonies of bacteria or mould.
Vitamin E is a good additive for natural oils such as almond or walnut - as an additive, sandalwood oil is even better(it's a natural disinfectant).

Good old light-grade machine oil is OK as well . if you are OK with petrochemicals.
I'm not .. but then .. I also don't shave ;{>

(edit: damn .. forgot to use the word "goat" .. thank the Borg for post-temporal revision!)