Oiling pipes

[geoff wooff]

I've never heard of this book

Here's a PDF version:


Handbook for pipers

Ta much-ly!

[oliver]

Thanks Geoff !

[rgouette]

yes, a hearty thanks for that

[Craigdup]

Here's my experience with oiling the inside of a chanter.

After a conversation with a oboe and bassoon maker who oiled its instrument, I oiled my chanter as they do, with mineral oil. I actually taped all the holes of my chanter and literally filled the bore with oil and let it sit for a few minutes, filled with oil. I then let it dripped and wiped the inside with a clean cloth on, indeed, a kebab stick.

Here was the effect. My chanter is a D chanter in cocobolo. A very "light" wood, I find, very responsive, almost too much, like if the notes jump out of the chanter a bit too fast (to my taste). After the oiling, the chanter's tone became "darker", still in tune of course, but like if if the harmonics where less harsh or "in your face". To tell the the truth, I find and I've been told too that my D chanter has now the deep tone of a flat set. I think the oiling helped a lot in rounding up it's tone.

[tommykleen]

...

After a conversation with a oboe and bassoon maker who oiled its instrument, I oiled my chanter as they do, with mineral oil. ...

Those instruments are "wet" instruments. Uilleann pipes are a dry instrument. I am assuming the maker did not oil the bore on that chanter... so why are you oiling the bore?

I would consider that chanter of lesser value now. But maybe that's just me.

[Craigdup]

The conversation I had with oboe guy was not about wetness per se, but about micro cracks in the wood in the bore. He said that mineral oil (and he was clear about this particular oil; it doesn't go tacky) would act as a filler for these micro cracks, thus smoothing out the bore and "healing" it, so it were.

As for the "value" of an instrument, I think it's all in the tone. If by empirical experimentation the tone is pleasing to the musician, well this instrument is of value. I wouldn't suggest oiling the bore as a standard now, of course (what do I know...), but my experience with my chanter proved to be very interesting.

It is, by the way, a 2012 Tim Benson D chanter. Piper Fiachra O'Reagan played it in comparison with his Andreas Rogge set and was very pleased with it. Tim Benson played with the chanter after the experiment and had nothing to complain about.

We don't need to be scared of oil on musical woodwinds, be them dry or wet, me thinks.

[Cathy Wilde]

Triple tanks for the PDF, Mr. G!

[Cathy Wilde]

Just for curiosity ... how many cracked chanters have y'all seen? (Yes, this is a real question.)

I ask because flutes crack quite frequently,* but again, I believe the main culprit is moisture -- the bores are affected by the constant condensation/drying cycles they're subjected to. Soaked interior wood cells expand faster than exterior cells, etc., etc. ... That's why you oil flutes.

Since chanters don't undergo such abuse, I'm wondering if there's a corresponding drop in incidences of cracking or splitting.


* Also, it seems they crack most frequently in the head and barrel, where the most moisture collects.

[PJ]

I ask because flutes crack quite frequently,* but again, I believe the main culprit is moisture -- the bores are affected by the constant condensation/drying cycles they're subjected to. Soaked interior wood cells expand faster than exterior cells, etc., etc. ... That's why you oil flutes.

Since chanters don't undergo such abuse, I'm wondering if there's a corresponding drop in incidences of cracking or splitting.


* Also, it seems they crack most frequently in the head and barrel, where the most moisture collects.

My understanding is that wood contracts/expands much more than metal, so when you put a wooden sleeve over metal, you're asking for trouble. This just happens to be the design of tuning slides on flutes, so when the air gets dry (like a Canadian winter, or, say in the cargo hold of a plane), the wood shrinks, but the metal doesn't, and so the wood cracks.