Stick whistle handle

[mick miller]

Please excuse this 'how to' post, DEEKSOFDOOM was interested to see how you go about putting a whistle into an antler stick handle. There's most likely many ways of doing it, this is just the method I employ.

 

First off a whacking great sketch...

 

 

Now the explanation:

 

Before starting you'll need a piece of dowel or other seasoned wood, 8 or 9mm diameter or whittled down to that is good.

 

1. Drill a pilot hole as deep as you can go.

 

2. Then gradually increase the size with drill bits until you get to just under the dowel diameter, so for an 8mm dowel use a 7mm drill bit. The depth of the hole affects the tone; a deeper hole creates a low tone whistle, a shallow hole a high pitch whistle.

 

3. Next cut a 45 degree section out of the top to reveal the drilled chamber, the placement of this also affects the tone, the further you set it back toward the shank, the smaller the chamber you will create and thus the higher the tone. Clean the cut section up until it looks like a neat capital D.

 

4. Now for that piece of dowel, you want to spoon the leading edge with a pocket knife so it looks a little like the side on image in 4a. Then you'll need to take a 1.5 mm slice off the top. The removal of this section creates a channel down which the air will travel (see fig. 5b). The dowel should fit nice and tight in the antler as you tap it in; too tight? Sand it a little. Too loose? Get a bigger dowel!

 

To tune the whistle you need to tap the dowel in a bit then blow, tap and then blow etc. Usually the starting point for a decent tone is just as the top of the spooned edge reaches the start of the cut slot in fig 3.

 

5. Trim off the excess with a pocket knife. Now you can leave it there but it looks a bit rough and ready really. So...

 

6. Take a piece of buffalo horn or bone and glue it onto the end. Remove the excess with a Dremel and then I drill two small holes so it looks like a pigs snout; the holes are level with the air channel cut from the dowel. Then carry on sanding and shaping it off until it's nice and rounded. Finally polish it to a shine.

 

I'll try and get a photo up at some point, I can't find the good ladies camera at the moment.

 

Hope that makes sense?

[deeksofdoom]

Well done Mick, I didn't see this until now!

[mick miller]

No worries, I still haven't taken a picture have I? Looking forward to seeing how you get on with yours.