Modification for an Irish whistle

A modified piece to help get a better grip on the whistle. Designed by the piper himself, I merely crafted it. It was a challenging piece to make, but extremely rewarding to have been able to finish it in time.

This custom order was my the third skills demonstration at school, second semester. The idea is to press the upper lever which in turn covers the lowest hole. That way you don’t need to reach out with your ring finger, which can be frustrating and painful for some pipers. The upper lever has magnets that repel each other so it stays open at all times and is also easy to push down.

Everything but the screws are sterling silver. Silver is a very soft material for such use and quickly wears and becomes slack when undone a few times, so it’s better to use materials of different hardness. Silver screws might even end up meeting a trivial imperfection in the thread and jam, never getting it out again, so I used bronze wire for the screws.

The project is also on Instagram, pic 1 and pic 2.

Materials: Sterling silver, magnets, steel, leather
Date: 24.5.2013