removing elder pith

[Welsh Dragon]

Anyone got any ideas how I could remove the pith from a length of elder, maybe 2ft+. I've always fancied trying to make a blowpipe


Brian

 

[leon-b]

maybe a wire coat hanger bent strait ?
leon

 

[Toddy]

Fence wire works too though coathangers might be easier to come by.....blowpipes are illegal though.....so are peashooters so you're really just going to be making a tube to hold something, aren't you ? :Thinkingo

cheers,
Toddy

 

[jon r]

Ive wondered about doing this too! Maybe if you heated up a peice of wire you could burn it out. I bet that would wo

I made a blow gun not long ago out of a 5 foot length of bamboo. It works fantasticly well! the spears stick in trees!

If you made one out of bamboo, get a length of the thick stuff from your garden centre. Then split it down the middle length ways. Take out the nodes inside and stick it back together. Great fun!

Jon

 

[jon r]

You beat me to it Tody! My blow pipe is a container for knitting needles

 

[Toddy]

You beat me to it Tody! My blow pipe is a container for knitting needles

Good bushcraft skill that one Awfully handy, don't y'know

Cheers,
Toddy

 

[British Red]

The best way to remove the pith I have found is a length of threaded bolt rod (about £1.50 from B&Q for 1m). I use it for forming a rigid re-inforcement between the head piece and walking sticks. If you use the 6mm stuff, you can tap it through in one and then use it like a rat tail file to clean all the pith from the sides. Works an absolute treat and you haven't damaged the rod either. Theres a picture of a blowpipe I made this way (for blowing on the embers of fire) in the "Science of Firecraft" article

Red

 

[Toddy]

What a good idea An elder tuyer

cheers,
Toddy

 

[spamel]

Red, that is exactly what we all need a five foot long blow pipe for!!

 

[British Red]

You are just making words up now Toddy!

Tuyer? Its like Gaelic was a whole other languauge....

Red

 

[Welsh Dragon]

Fence wire works too though coathangers might be easier to come by.....blowpipes are illegal though.....so are peashooters so you're really just going to be making a tube to hold something, aren't you ? :Thinkingo

cheers,
Toddy

really? I didn't know that!
So no blowpipe/peashooter for me then


Brian

 

[British Red]

Health and safety dontcha know...gotta watch them sparks

Sadly mine is 2' long and really is used for blowing up fires!

Red

 

[Toddy]

You are just making words up now Toddy!

Tuyer? Its like Gaelic was a whole other languauge....

Red

A tuyer is the business bit of the pipe that supplies air into the heart of a forge or fire.
Sorry, sometimes I forget, and mix my technical terms in with my conversation

cheers,
Toddy

 

[jon r]

i used my blow pipe to grt a fire going. It was great for that purpose! Of course i would never use it to blow darts down! who would think of doing that!

 

[rich59]

I used the metal poles from a cloche (gardenning thing) - about 4mm diameter to clean out some short elder lengths (up to about 9 inches). That did quite well.

For 2 foot it was more difficult as you could not clear out the pith - just squash it to the sides.

So how did the primitive man/ woman clean out elder pith? Did they split it and then remake it? Or perhaps they didn't bother. I could imagine making a long thin bow or hand drill with a flint tip of some sort to drill through.

 

[fred gordon]

That is a really first class Pan Pipe. Can I ask about the lengths you used? I have always imagined it would be quite difficult to get the tuning right and this has put me off.

 

[John Fenna]

Are you taking the Pith..... or am I?
Sorry - bad pun....
I take the pith with a bit of wire (thin coat hanger) and then use a piece of cord to "sand" the inside clean.
John

 

[jon r]

If you were going to make a long pipe (something like 6 foot) would it be best to make it in sections and then some how fix them together?

 

[rich59]

That is a really first class Pan Pipe. Can I ask about the lengths you used? I have always imagined it would be quite difficult to get the tuning right and this has put me off.

I haven't got the numbers in front of me at the moment. But I took information off the net for the wavelengths and divided by 2 (or was it 4?) to get the length of the vibrating air column. You have to add on about another centimetre as the air column extends just beyond the open end of the tube. That gets it roughly right. But there is some hidden tuning. Each tube needs the bottom end stopped. I used blue tack. The further in you press the stop the higher the note. Therefore within limits you can quite finely tune it. I aimed for the G major scale and started off by aiming for something just too long for G. Then trimmed it a bit and hit G dead on. The rest similarly I aimed just below and tuned up with the blue tack. I had to redo a couple as I went too high.

I had thought to make something like a recorder/ flute but concluded that even a slightly misplaced hole would wreck the tuning for good. The pan pipe turned out easier I think.

 

[Biddlesby]

Accurate stuff! I tried making a simple whistle. Didn't really work. How about a tutorial, Rich?

Back to the thread: If you heat the wire in a fire that will clear out the gubbins faster. Make sure you choose a long wire obviously so you don't burn your mitts! If you want it really smooth: PatrickM mentioned on another thread that you can choose a large diameter horsetail stem, a similar diameter hazel wand; then thread it through and allow it to "shrink fit" by drying in order to smoothen up the inside of an elder tube.

Did you see the blowpipes Stuart has? He says these are made by drilling. Very smooth inner I believe.