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different wood choices for pipes?
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chad_fross



Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 37
Location: Seoul Korea

PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:19 am    Post subject: I am coming around to it :D Reply with quote

After some reflection and having made a few different chanters, and having tested reeds made out of two different materials (my phragmites reeds and an arundo donax reed made from a modified tenor drone reed) I am beginning to come around to what you and Olle are saying here. And bringing in the point about differing reeds in differing pipes seems true and valid. You could take a chanter made from a relatively soft wood and place a reed in it, then adjust the reed to give a harsh tone (to shave or not to shave down the tongue Very Happy) and then another chanter made from hard wood, and place a reed made from elder in it, then adjust the elder reed to have a soft tone...............................you could end up with a softwood chanter that has a hard, harsh tone and a hardwood chanter with a soft-sweet tone. And any area in between.
Sorry guys, and thanks.................I think I'm finally starting to come around to your point of view......................
And a plus to this, is that it widens my choice of materials for pipe making:)
Chad
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Anders Jackson
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Joined: 28 Nov 2006
Posts: 142
Location: Dalarna, Sweden

PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, this is what good arguments are all about. Bending your arguments, think about what is your idea and how to explain it. To grind away faults and make the good parts stronger. (Edit: and of course rethink parts in your idea/arguments that doesn't hold "against" other arguments, the hard part to do!)

To do that you have to try to explaing your standings, like in this tread. Thanks for the help Smile

Then, a hard wood might make it easier to be able to do a good smoth tube inside your chanter. So there are also some technical issues here to.
As always, there are many things that make some difference and your model of the reality is only as god as your understanding of the problem. Explaining makes your model better, which helps understand what might be the source to a problem.

But I have the same experiance as you have had about tone, reeds and chanters. That's why I never ever (almost at least Very Happy ) throws away a "bad" reed. It might be "the" reed that works excelent in another chanter or drone.
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favrepipes



Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 63
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Olive wood......I never thought of that..........I'm sure it looks great also. That would be a perfect compliment to the oil I use to oil the bores
I don't suppose you mind divulging your source?


I actually don't have a specific supplier of olive wood. The couple of south african olive turning sticks that I got 2 years ago were a one-off being sold by an artisan. As for the wood that I recently ordered, it a small log of california olive which I found on eBay but it is still very green and will need a few years to dry. The remaining olive pieces on this seller's auctions have erratic grain patterns and I don't think that it would be well suited for pipes. I'll keep you in mind though if I stumble across a worthwhile supplier.
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chad_fross



Joined: 02 Feb 2007
Posts: 37
Location: Seoul Korea

PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2007 11:28 am    Post subject: different woods........ Reply with quote

yes, olive seems to be very difficult to find.........and I don't have the patience to wait for wood to dry properly. So I have to try to find either kiln dried or air dried. I have had great luck with one particular ebay vender that goes by the name of : ncwood. I have purchased purple heartwood, bocote, zebra wood, spalted bubunga, and will be buying some american holly which I plan on making chanter bell ends and drone mounts and drone caps with (just to contrast a darker wood). I am just experimenting, and don't really know the "right" way to do it, but I'll figure A way of doing it that should work.
Anyway, he has alot of green/waxed exotic hardwoods, but he does also have a fair supply of air-dried as well as kiln-dried wood. He is a great shipper, and I have only had one cracked piece of wood that I recieved.......after I asked him if he would replace it if I sent it back, he said to wait a few days............when I recieved another batch of wood that I had ordered from him, he had thrown in another piece of wood to replace the cracked(checked) piece, free of charge without me having to send the original back. He seems to be a great guy. That being said, I want to say that I have no connections with him other than as a repeat client. I will recieve no discount or otherwise compensation for sending business his way...........I just think he has great wood, at great prices, and is great to do business with and I want to share him as a source to any would-be buyers.
Chad
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Quimbisero



Joined: 28 Oct 2006
Posts: 61

PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

By the way, if you ever get stock that's large enough, Holly has a history of use as a wood for the making of chanters and drones, albeit never extensively used. It is hard, denser than maple and most fruit woods and fairly stable. The relative scarcity of large diameters and its historical use for expensive inlay as a substitute for ivory probably are the reasons it has not been more extensively used.

Eoghan
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Stuart



Joined: 28 Oct 2006
Posts: 12
Location: Comox, BC Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 3:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quimbisero wrote:
By the way, if you ever get stock that's large enough, Holly has a history of use as a wood for the making of chanters and drones,
Eoghan


here in the pacific northwest we have quite a bit of holly, some good sized peices. I have every arborist I could talk into it giving me a call when they are chopping out anything of 4" diameter or larger. I"m actually off to a friend's place in a bit to pick up some holly cut for me by my friend's friend. What I am coveting is a 10 inch across holly tree, some 20 feet tall. Darned if I cant convince them to let me cut that one down. Very Happy
Right now I'm using it as a substitute for ivory for mounts on pipes, but do plan to try making pipes from it. lovely stuff to turn btw.

Stu
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Stuart



Joined: 28 Oct 2006
Posts: 12
Location: Comox, BC Canada

PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 7:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

got that holly last night.
belonged to a friend of a friend of a friend, get this....
a FOOT across, 25 FEET tall..
they chopped it up for firewood.
The folks who noticed this salvaged me some of the wider straight, branchless stuff, about a hundred pounds of it. but cut into 14 inch long sections.
any thoughts on dealing with this?? smaller stuff I just turn as is once dry, longer large lengths I send to the mill. this is too big diameter for my band saw and too small for sending to the mill.
Stu
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Yuri
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Joined: 16 Dec 2006
Posts: 149
Location: New Zealand

PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 5:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There is an ancient technique that served humankind for millenias. It even served Neanderthals for millenia. I still use it, it's incredibly easy. I'm talking about splitting.
Get an ax, a small one. (there is a tool called a froe, that is the special tool for this, but out of a hundred woodworkers you are lucky if one even heard of it, let alone has one) Then get a hunk of hardwood that's comfortable enogh to hold as a mallet. Place the ax on the centerline of the log, and off you go. Has the advantage of getting the wood split along the actual grain, too, instead of cutting all through it.
Just a warning: DO NOT use a hammer to drive the ax in. You'll kiss your ax good-by very soon that way.
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favrepipes



Joined: 26 Oct 2006
Posts: 63
Location: Vancouver

PostPosted: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Some holly was given to me a couple of years ago and I have since made an uilleann chanter from it and also used it as decorative mounts on a full set. Holly has a reputation for giving a mellower sound and works well for the body of the pipes, but I wasn't too impressed by it for the mounts. It takes dings more easily than I care for where there is detailing, and points and edges seem vulnerable to chipping. I would personally use something harder like boxwood for that application. If the mounts were decorated with a rounder profile on the other hand, then holly would make some fine mounts and they do look nice next to a dark wood.
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JNelson



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 19
Location: move around, Florida, Alaska, Texas, Kenya

PostPosted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:39 am    Post subject: Oak? Reply with quote

Since I've been working down here in Florida for the summer, I've built my first sackpipa. I've used dry logs from the wood stack behind the hangar primarily. I am pretty sure it is all oak. Anyways I was pretty close to being finished and was just working on my last piece, the mouthpiece. I was turning it down and switched off the lathe for a second. All of a sudden I let out a gasp of delight, this piece of wood was different from the rest. instead of being white all the way through like the rest had been, this piece had a red and non uniform center. this produced an amazing color and grain in the wood that was far superior to the coloration of the other pieces I had already made. needless to say everything else I had so painstakingly labored on so far were hastily shoved to the far side of the workbench as I remade each piece in the new wood. I don't know if this sackpipa has any majorly discernable differences from your typical birch or not. But, it looks so nice, I don't really care.
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Peter Novotnik



Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 5
Location: Melbourne

PostPosted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:04 pm    Post subject: materials Reply with quote

I think that reed instruments (incl. our sackpipa) material doesn't have such a big impact on sound, as source of vibrations is reed itself not a pipe - yet I agree that type of wood and "smoothness" of a bore have a impact on "finishing" of our sound, the way notes interfere with each other, etc etc but i think wood choice is mostly practical aspect - re: "concrete recorders" - with recorders/flutes actually matter is bit different: its the instrument body resonates and material is very important factor - try to compare wood recorder to exactly the same pitch clay flute (or even ocarina).....
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