*********************************************************************
     (:   HOW I MADE A PENNYWHISTLE AT HOME IN MY SPARE TIME   :)

                             Eric Reiswig
                      ww270@freenet.victoria.bc.ca

(Latest revision: August 1995;  Please leave this header on when/if
you distribute this file.  Thanks.)
*********************************************************************

First, a disclaimer: this document isn't meant to be a definitive
guide on 'How to do it.'  Rather, the idea is more of a descriptive 
'How i did it.'  To me, the major goal of whistle-making is personal
empowerment, so i feel good when i can spread it around and help 
others to make their *own* instruments!  Please do give it a try.

==== preliminaries ==================================================

I make my whistles in ordinary copper plumbing pipe.  I use the 1/2"
diameter for the smaller whistles (D down to Bb) and the 3/4" for the
larger sizes (low G down to D).  There is no difference between the
two other than size.  (ie. all the methods are the same.)  It's
important to start out with a piece of pipe longer than needed, since
it's easy to cut bits off, and hard to put 'em back!  

There have been some questions about the use of copper tubing, as
related to health issues.  I've tried to find out what, if any, risk 
playing a copper whistle poses:  The nutritional RDA for copper is 
something like 2mg, and you're *not* going to absorb too much by playing 
a copper whistle.  There is a condition called Wilson's disease where
copper apparently poses a larger risk.

Note as well that it's not necessary to use copper pipe.  Any easily-
available tubing will work just fine.  I remeber Paddy Keenan saying
that he used to make whistles out of TV arial antennas.  Differences
in the diameter of the tubing will make small differences in overall
length and hole placement, so keep this in mind when selecting your
tubing.  Work carefully, and don't be afraid to experiment.

Any time you cut the metal tubing, it leaves little bits of metal 
('burrs,' i think they're called) stuck around.  TAKE ALL OF THESE OFF, 
with a file, &c.  They interfere with the windway, and generally make 
your life difficult.

The design i've come up with is an adaptation of the Clarke brand 
tinwhistle, which uses a simple wooden block inserted at the end.  
(NOT the new 'Sweetone' model, which has a plastic mouthpiece.)  
It's quite useful and instructive to examine the differences between 
the Clarke brand and the other, plastic-headed brands.  My whistles 
end up being a sort of hybrid, sharing features of each type.

==== the mouthpiece =================================================

This is the important part.  In general, the Clarke mouthpiece is a
good place to look if you're unsure about something.

The first thing to do is to make one end of the pipe as square as you 
can, for a length of about 1 1/4".  I do this by whacking the pipe with
a hammer, on the concrete floor in my basement.  The cross-section
won't have corners as sharp as the Clarke, but that's ok.  All you 
really need is one flat(ish) side, which will be the top of the 
windway.

Now, take this side, and cut a slit across it, about an inch from the 
top.  The slit should go just about all the way across the pipe, and
should be about 3/16" wide.  The lower edge of the slit is called the 
lip, and it's the place where the sound is made.  To do this, it needs
to be in the path of the incoming air.  What i do is as follows: take
a *large* nail punch (about 1/4" across) and start hitting the lip 
with a hammer and this punch.  Watch carefully, and try to get the lip
to go *straight* across the top of the tube.  This is important.  If
you sight through the mouthpiece of a Clarke whistle, you'll notice
that the lip is curving across the windway, since the tin has just 
been pushed down.  This is what we want to avoid.  You want the lip
to be as straight as possible.  

 __________
|          |    (apologies if you have a proportionally-spaced display.)
|          |    This is what the mouthpiece should look like.  Hammering 
|          |    the lip straight makes a 'v' shape, which bends down 
|__________|    inside the tube.  Looking through the tube, the lip  
|__________|    should be straight.  Now, use a small file to sharpen the 
|\        /|    edge of the lip, top and bottom.  Not a razor-edge, but  
|  \    /  |    make it thinner than the wall of the pipe.
|          |

The next step is to make the fipple (wooden block) which defines the
windway.  Get a piece of hardwood, preferably with one *flat* face, 
which will be the top of the block.  It helps if the block is 4-5"
long, so you can hold it while carving.  Carefully whittle away the
wood, until it fits tightly into the mouthpiece.  The windway should
be 1/16" to 1/8" high, and fairly flat (if you got the end of the pipe 
nice and square).  The most important thing here is that the windway 
have approximately the same height all the way along, and that, looking
through the bottom end of the pipe, you be able to see a *small* crack
of light through the mouthpiece.  I generally find it best not to 
push the fipple all the way up to lip-hole, but to let the tube
overhang it by a *small* amount.

You can test whether the mouthpiece works by blowing through it.  It's 
a bit tricky when the fipple is sticking out the end of the tube by 
a few inches, but holding the whistle sideways, like a flute, and 
covering the end of the mouthpiece with your mouth, it should be 
possible to sound a note.  Blowing harder sounds the octave, and you
might be able to get still another octave.  It takes a fair bit of
practice to make a decent fipple, and you might have to make 2 or 3 
per whistle, and choose the best-fitting one, &c.  

The fipple/windway is the most important step in getting a decent tone.
If the tone isn't solid enough, it often helps to take the fipple out 
and sand down the top, to increase the height of the windway, and let 
more air pass through.  So it seems better to make the fipple so that 
the windway is quite shallow, and then steadily strengthen the tone by 
sanding it down, until it plays where you want it.

Once you can get a sound out of it, leave it alone for the moment.  If
you want to make a 2-section whistle, you can cut off the mouthpiece
part, about 1/3 of the way down the pipe, and solder a copper pipe
joint to the mouthpiece section.  These are pretty inexpensive, and fit
tightly enough to make the whistle tuneable to some degree.  (If you're
not using plumbing pipe, you can often find tubing in a variety of
sizes at a hobby store, and use this to join the sections.)

==== tuning & fingerholes ============================================

This part is easier, but can get fairly tedious.  Unless you have  
perfect pitch, i *strongly* advise using a chromatic, electronic tuner 
for this.  A general note: the whistle gets sharper as it warms up, so 
before cutting any parts, blow through the whistle for a minute or two, 
and make sure of the pitch when it is *warm*.

The first thing is to cut the pipe to length.  If you used enough pipe,
it should be flat of the note you want.  (Without fingerholes, it 
sounds the lowest note.  ie. no fingerholes = all holes covered.)  To
sharpen the note, you have to cut the pipe off at the bottom.  Cut off 
only a small amount at time, so as not to go *too* sharp.  As you 
approach the desired note, use a file instead of a hacksaw, so you can
really have control over how much metal gets taken off the bottom.

Once you have the pipe tuned to the correct key, carefully measure the
lip-to-foot length of the pipe.  Assuming you play the whistle with 
your left hand on top, and numbering your fingers (1=index finger, &c),
the holes are placed as follows: L1 (the top hole) goes 44.7% of the
way down from the lip to the foot.  The holes go down as follows:
L1=45%  L2=52%  L3=61%  R1=69%  R2=75%  R3=85%.
I arrived at these figures by measuring a number of commercially-
available whistles of different sizes.  The proportions were quite
uniform.  However, there is a lot of variability permitted in 
fingerhole size vs. position: moving a hole up a bit lets it be smaller.
(A good candidate for this is R2 on a low-G whistle, which tends to be
quite large, unless you 'fudge' it upwards a bit.)  Also, the diameter
of the tubing will make a difference in hole placement and size.

Cut each hole with an electric drill.  The important thing to keep in
mind is to make each hole smaller than you need it.  Once all the holes
are cut, get out some round files and some gloves.  It's time for some
elbow grease.  You now have to open up each hole to the correct size.
Start with the bottom hole.  (A good idea is to stick in some of that
plastic coat-hanger rod protector, to keep the files from scratching
the bore of the pipe too badly.  Take it out when playing the whistle,
though, since it flattens the pitch, confusing the heck out of you.  :)
Play the bottom note, which should be on pitch.  Now, remove your R3
finger, and see what note it plays.  If the note is flat, the hole is
too small, so open it up a bit with a round file.  (If it's sharp, it's
too late, time to start over.  If you're happy with the mouthpiece,
though, you can re-use it: cut it off and use a pipe joint to add a 
new barrel.)  Opening the upper edge of the hole moves the center of 
the hole upward and minimizes the final size of the hole, so try to 
open holes upward, instead of making them bigger all around.  Keep 
going until the note is on pitch.  Then do the same for the remaining 
holes, R2, R1, L3, L2, L1, in that order. 

You have some control here over the 'voicing' of the whistle.  Blowing
harder raises the pitch of a given note (i'm not talking about jumping 
the octave, here), so pay attention and try to make all the notes on 
pitch with the 'correct' breath pressure.

Another thing to do is smooth the edges of the fingerholes, so they're
not too rough to play comfortably.

==== the mouthpiece, revisited ======================================

Once you've got all the holes done, it's time to finish the mouthpiece.
It's a good idea to do this last since you can clean out *all* the 
dust, &c that you get while filing the holes out.  If the whistle is in 
two sections, this isn't a worry: you can finish the mouthpiece whenever 
you want, since it's short enough to clean by itself, and the body of 
the whistle is then open at both ends for cleaning.

Cut away the bottom part of the mouthpiece so it forms an angle that
you can get into your mouth.  Insert the fipple (still long & sticking 
out, i hope) where it plays the best, and drill a small hole through 
the mouthpiece from side to side.  This should not damage the windway; 
it should go through the body of the fipple.

 _____________     ______       Find a nail that fits snugly through
|             |___/             the hole, and cut it to length so that
 \                              it fits flush with both sides of the
   \      o                     whistle.
     \___________________

Now is the time to cut the fipple to size.  Remove it from the whistle,
and cut off the excess, and sand the outer face (where your lower lip
goes) smooth.  An idea here is to *roughly* cut away the back of the 
block, then stick it back into the whistle and use a power sander to 
grind the fipple down to be flush with the end of the pipe.  (I use a
snading drum on my electric drill for this.)

I use 5-minute epoxy to glue the mouthpiece together.  Actually, if you
use a nail through the mouthpiece, the glue serves more to seal the
edges of the fipple against air leakage, rather than providing any
structural support.  Put some glue in the mouthpiece (staying *well*
away from the windway) as well as in the nail holes, and push the 
fipple in place.  Then push the nail through the hole, and wipe away
any excess glue.  Once the glue dries, it's done!

Sanding the metal to remove any paint or grime makes the whistle quite 
attractive.  An appropriate polish really makes it glow!  Decoration is 
up to you: paint, etch, engrave, whatever, to your heart's content!  :)
I generally give the mouthpiece a light coating of clear nail polish,
to help seal the wooden fipple.

==== the end (whew! :) =============================================
                                                    
Please send any comments, questions, suggestions, anecdotes, &c. you
might have, so we can learn from each other!

-><-  eric.
-><-  ww270@freenet.victoria.bc.ca
                                      
(Again, please leave my address down here if you pass this file on.)
*********************************************************************