Elder Whistle

[THOaken]

Hello. I've just spent this very sunny afternoon making my first whistle made from Elder. I managed to find a piece of dead standing wood with a suitable pith, so no trees were harmed in the making of this doodad.

Here's a collage of progress and final product photos.

It looked pretty scruffy at first, but sanding really made it look quite neat.

It's a fairly simple craft project, but very fun. You can see from the photos that I hollowed out the pith, cut a notch into the wood, inserted a stick with a flattened surface to create the air passage in the mouth end, and then plugged the other end with another bit of wood so that it's air tight. It probably doesn't need explaining, but when you blow through the mouth end the air is vented through the small passage and having no where to go but up comes out of the notch and thus a high pitched sound is produced.

It works surprisingly well for a first attempt:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1Ki3sKQSGNO

I have a question on the toxicity and use. Which part of Elder is toxic, the wood itself? How often is too often to use it? Also, I'm more more worried about the fact that I'm putting my lips on dirty pieces of wood like the mouth end component.

Thanks

 

[Cromm]

Outstanding, great to hear it too. Well done.

 

[THOaken]

Outstanding, great to hear it too. Well done.

Thanks, Cromm. Much appreciated!

 

[ozzy1977]

Cracking job, nice sound too.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Great whistle. Regarding Elder toxicity, read here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus

and here. http://www.henriettes-herb.com/blog/elder-toxicity.html

Hope this helps.

 

[THOaken]

Thanks everyone.

 

[THOaken]

Something else I'm wondering is why there appears to be blue-grey markings on the wood. I'm not sure if this is spalting or if it's just the result of my having sanded off the dirt and perhaps it got "smudged" into the smoothed wood?

 

[Goatboy]

Hi THOaken,
Well it certainly worked on my mates spaniel, Ben. When I played your recording there he jumped up and went skelping around the house!
Nice piece of work too, I like whistles made out of natural materials, aesthetically pleasing things. I've one made from an antler tine which I used to use to call my JRT. (Which is what I think Ben thought yours was).
I wouldn't worry about the spalting, I've wooden eating implements that have spalting in them and I'm not dead yet. If you're worried about dirt on the wood you could give it a quick dicht in a solution like Milton fluid.
Nice to see more esoteric projects, you'll have to try a wooden duck call next for fun! LINK

Keep up the good work and how's the volunteering going at the historical site you are at?

ATB,
GB.

 

[THOaken]

Thanks, Goatboy.

Yes, I'm still at Butser and I believe I'll be getting my "uniform" as I'm now very much a regular. I've only taken 1 day off since November (it's every Wednesday) and that was the 12th.

Thanks again. I'm going to make another spoon soon with an interestingly themed handle and get cracking on bowls or "kuksas".

 

[Baelfore]

That's a nice little project. Must give this a blast (get it?) at the weekend.

 

[Goatboy]

Good news on Butser (sorry I had forgotten the name). Looked a great place. Do you find you are learning a lot of new skills working there? Looked well set out and run from your earlier reports. (A wee update would be nice - hint!, hint!)

Your knife skills and confidence certainly seem to have come on, you must have a nice wee collections of things you've made by now?

 

[THOaken]

Good news on Butser (sorry I had forgotten the name). Looked a great place. Do you find you are learning a lot of new skills working there? Looked well set out and run from your earlier reports. (A wee update would be nice - hint!, hint!)

Your knife skills and confidence certainly seem to have come on, you must have a nice wee collections of things you've made by now?

Ah yes, I do indeed. 3 spoons, a spatula, a fork, a birch bark match container, a crook knife case and an elder whistle.

Also, concerning the Butser reports I stopped for two reasons. I've not been using the forum as much as I... used to. But also it's because I didn't want the thread to feel like my own personal blog. It felt a bit too self indulgent. However, I do have an Imgur account of about 50 images of things I've been doing. I'm not really in the pictures that much, but it's just to show the activities we're doing. http://dorthonion.imgur.com/all/ That should be the correct link. I've learnt thatching, wattling, split wood for benches, layed hedges, erected posts for a fence, coppiced, helped construct parts of the work in progress grain store... and a lot more. Thanks for the interest.

 

[Goatboy]

Cheers for posting that link, I like hearing how folk get on with projects and the photographs are good, really liked the newt, axe head casting and the sunlit hand shots.
I see you've become a billhook user! Very much my favourite outdoor working tool (Well maybe the big tractor was but it's not very bushcrafty!). Great versatile piece on kit a billhook, did you find it good to use?

Thatching's also a good skill to learn and along with hedge laying very satisfying.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[THOaken]

Cheers for posting that link, I like hearing how folk get on with projects and the photographs are good, really liked the newt, axe head casting and the sunlit hand shots.
I see you've become a billhook user! Very much my favourite outdoor working tool (Well maybe the big tractor was but it's not very bushcrafty!). Great versatile piece on kit a billhook, did you find it good to use?

Thatching's also a good skill to learn and along with hedge laying very satisfying.

Thanks for the reply.

The billhook was very fun to use and coppicing was very interesting as I'd read a lot about it but I never got to take part in it. The hazel was used for several wattle fences the previous week, I believe. Thatching was fairly complicated at first, but each volunteer was given twenty minutes of one to one instruction by David Freeman, if you've heard of him. And hedge laying, as my as I liked it and got stuck in, the day was dismal! It was pouring down so much that most of the volunteers stayed inside. I didn't. I was the one who roused them to get back outside.

Cheers.