We Don't Need No Stinking Plastic Whistles!!!

Buzzbait

Buzzbait

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Feb 25, 2001
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Here’s a handy little experiment I did over the weekend. I’d done a little research on emergency whistles and found that one can easily be made in the outdoors, with just a Swiss Army Knife. Actually, it could be done with just a simple pocketknife, but would take a bit more time and ingenuity. Anyways, this was a fun little test of self-reliance, since I don’t always have the tools on hand that I wish I did; one of those being a good whistle.

I started off having to search out some elderberry. Elderberry has a very pithy inner core, which is easy to hollow out. There may be other trees with this same pithy core, but I don’t know a whole lot about various trees. You might want to try a bunch of flora in your own area, to see which wood is easiest to hollow out.

After finding a good wide piece of elderberry, I cut out a four-inch length with the saw on my SAK Huntsman. I then proceeded to hollow out as much as I could with the awl on my SAK. The inner core came out without a problem, but I needed to get in a little deeper. So I used the knife blade on my SAK to sharpen a small twig, and used the sharp twig to dig out a total of about 2 inches of core from the mouth end of the whistle.

With the hollowing out done, I next had to cut the notch in the whistle. I used the saw blade to make a vertical cut, about one inch from the mouth end of the whistle. The depth of the cut was about half the total thickness of the stick. Then I just whittled a 45 degree angled cut with the knife blade.

The tricky part was next. I had to find a dowel to plug up the mouth hole. I just picked up a small piece of birch off the ground and whittled it down to size. I then used the SAK blade to smooth out about 1/4 of the thickness of the dowel, creating a smooth side down its length. After cutting the dowel to a length of about an inch, I plugged up the mouth end of the whistle.

All I had to do afterwards was whittle around the mouthpiece, because whistling would leave bark in my mouth. YUK!!! The whistle worked very well. It might not have been as loud as a Fox40, but was very good considering that it was fast and free. The total time to make the whistle was about ten or fifteen minutes.

Picture “1” shows off my SAK Huntsman and Elderberry whistle. Notice how the smoothed out part of the dowel lines up with the outer cuts. Picture “2” is a top view of the whistle, showing the vertical cut, angled cut, and part of the dowel. Notice that the dowel sticks out of the hole just a hair. I would have made the dowel flush with the vertical cut, but the extra length seemed to make the whistle more efficient. Picture “3” gives a clear view of the mouth hole and dowel. Notice the smoothed out part of the dowel. Picture “4” just provides another view of the outer cuts.

whistle1.jpg
 
When I was a kid my grandfather used to make whistles like that for me in the spring. This has been nearly 50 years ago so my memory of which wood he used is gone. I do remember that the two most prominant trees near the house were a maple and a weeping willow.

Anyway, in the spring the bark comes loose from the wood easily. He would cut a smooth branch and square the ends. Then he would cut the notch and carefully push the whole branch out of the bark, trim some of the back off, flatten out an area on the mouthpiece, as you showed, and then slide the parts back into the bark. After it was dry the pieces stayed togeather with out any glue.

Seeing your thread brought all that back to me. Thanks for reminding me what a swell guy he was. And at that time he wasn't that much older than I am now.

GD
 
Great article!
You might want to know that elderberry is the favorite tree of witches and that chopping on them is sure to bring some real bad stuff.
Now of course we know that everything except the flowers and berries is loaded with cyanide producing glycosides. Wood bark, roots, everything. I've even felt a little rough after a few jugs of homemade elderflower and elderberry wine - but that's great stuff.
Willow just might be a better choice. Just a heads up - I really did enjoy the post, and making whistles is fun!
 
It's probably been 30 years since I've made these. Fun, useful and they were in my price range.

Sidebar: Jimbo, if you're making any more Elderberry wine, jam, etc...try mixing your elderberry juice with sumac-ade, 50/50.

Pick a bucketful of red Sumac berries, remove as much wood as possible, cover berries with boiling water, mash with a 2x4. Let sit overnight, stir occasionally. Strain first thru a colander, then again thru your colander lined with 2 or more layers of cheesecloth. (I sometimes strain thru the cheesecloth a few times, sumac can be tough to clean up.) This sumac-ade is very tart, downright sour, you can add sugar and make a pink lemonade if you want. I usually mix it with Elderberry juice, 50/50 for jelly. The increased pectin from the sumac really makes a difference making jelly, comes out tasty, and a clear reddish-purple.
I 'spect it would make a tasty wine but I'm a Zinfandel & Rhone man, myself.
 
I remember my father doing that, how long did it take you to do? Also was this your first attempt?
 
I initially picked up some wooden dowels, and tried to make a whistle using them. It was a bitch to hollow out the dowels, but gave me some practise. My third whistle was an elderberry one, and it took a quick ten or fifteen minutes to make. Elderberry is a piece of cake to work with.

I'll grab some willow tomorrow, and see if it works.
 
I see in your pic that there is a hole on a the part after the whistle did that go all the way through? so theres a hole in both ends?
 
The hole only goes halfway through. I also believe that you can control the tone of the whistle by changing how much is hollowed out.
 
I just tried making one! It turned out to be a Failure. The whistle it self was nice looking, but when i tried to put into twig to make it be a whistle it wouldnt go in correctly so i tried whittling it into a dowel shape, but wasnt perfectly round when i put it in it didnt produce any whistle sound. Any tips to perfect it?
 
Fun project, Buzzbait! This type of work also makes for some friendly competition among multitool enthusiasts. Good way to test some of the Gerber vs. Leatherman vs. SAK strengths and weaknesses.
 
Originally posted by crosman177
I just tried making one! It turned out to be a Failure. The whistle it self was nice looking, but when i tried to put into twig to make it be a whistle it wouldnt go in correctly so i tried whittling it into a dowel shape, but wasnt perfectly round when i put it in it didnt produce any whistle sound. Any tips to perfect it?
Click to expand...

Yah, I've got a hint. Try making the flat part of the twig a little larger. I had this problem with my dowel whistle. It wouldn't make any noise until I flattened out the dowel more.

Look through the flat part and make sure that you can see some light coming in from the top notch. You need a straight path of air from the mouthpiece to the notch.
 
Thanks for a great post, Buzzbait -- taught me something new. I've never made a whistle but will give it a try.

Question: You've noted that the whistle is about 4" long, and that the hole runs about 2" deep to the cut-out notch. Does the remaining solid 2" half affect the sound in any way? Or does it matter if it is longer or shorter than 2"?

Thanks again and best,

Glen
 
I don't see how the overall length of the whistle, including non-hollowed out areas, would affect the sound. I just made the whistle longer so I could get a good grip on it.
 
The amount of hollowed-out area does affect tone. The slip-bark whistles like Glock mentioned can be worked to get varying tones by slipping the peg in the back of the whistle in and out. The more hollow you have the lower the tone. It should be the same for an elderberry whistle, except that you wouldn't have tone control. Also, the elderberry whistles can be made with the entire length hollowed out and a plug inserted into the back, just like the slip-bark whistles.
 
Since posting last I went out to a willow tree outside the office and spent the last 15 minutes of my lunch making a whistle. My first ever!

I cut a 6" length of willow about 1/2" across and free of limbs. I scored the bark about 1" in from both ends and stripped the ends of their bark. Using my pocket knife, I thumped the middle portion all over to slightly bruise and loosen the bark. Then, gripping one of the naked ends with my teeth, I grabbed the remain bark and started twisting and pulling it. It popped really loud and came free, sliding off of the stick in one piece. I cut away the excess wood, leaving the pegs for both ends. The peg for the end of the whistle I left slightly long so that it would protrude and provide a handle for slipping the peg in and out to change the tone. The front peg I shaved down flat on one side and inserted into the tube. I cut the notch as Buzz described. With both pegs in I could get a slight whistle-like tone. I pushed the mouthpiece in further so that it extends about 1/2 way across the notch, and now it shrieks like a beauty. And sure enough, as I slid the back peg out and back in it went to lower tones and back to higher tones.

Success!!!

Buzz - Thanks for the inspiration and impetus for such a great afternoon mini-project!
 
It's funny Buzz brought this up 'cuz I've been wanting to make a willow whistle lately.

The secret to them is cutting the new growth and using just one "section" between buds, leaf scars, nodes, whatever you want to call them. (Longer pieces can be used but you may not be able to separate the bark from the wood.) Roll the piece with your knife handle on a hard surface to free the bark from the wood. If you use new growth early enough in the year they will come apart with very little effort. Finish by using the techniques described by Buzz and Coyote.

BTW, you boys down south seem to have it easier than us northerners because the willows grow longer faster down there and you get longer sections of new shoots to use for greater variations in tone. The largest section I've seen around here is only 3-4" between nodes. I saw a guy down south (Roy Underhill?) make 'em twice that big.
 
If your in a real rush, or there is no suitable wood around, you can make a fair old noise by using a blade of grass.
Put your hands together like your praying, raise your thumbs, you'll see there is a small gap between them (thumbs) this is where you put the blade of grass. Get the grass nice and taught, put your lips to your thumbs and blow. Might take a couple of tries if you've not done it before, but it's quite a loud noise when you do it right.
If the grass breaks (and it usually does) just get some more.

Sorry there's no knife content with this method :D
 
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