Make a wood whistle in five minutes

A few people were asking for more details about the small whistle I mentioned at the end of my train whistle video. You can make it with just hand tools. You will need a 3/4" dowel and a 3/8" dowel. And a 3/8" drill bit.

[johnlehman]

My ten year old and I have made at least 25 of these together since watching your video! ALL the neighbor kids have them now and they love them. Thank you for sharing. It was amazing quality time with my sons. It was also a great way to get them excited about making something instead of buying to paying someone else. That same ten year old wants to start selling them to classmates for $5 a piece. So we may have created a monster!! LOL Thanks again for sharing.

[mikefalkner]

THANKS !! One of our grandsons was having a 2-year birthday party in 3 days. The theme was coo-coo trains. So made 20 of these very quickly. WHAT A HIT !! Lots of noise. Parents not so happy however, but who cares. The kids LOVE them.

Thanks for showing how simple it is to make.

[chrisparker]

Thanks for mentioning that it doesn't matter if the hole's off-center. If you hadn't, I'd still be in the basement, drill hole #93 in dowel #93!

[Calmari]

Awesome! I have all the supplies I need for these in my shop right now...going to make some to give to my brother-in-law's kids!!!

[NadimahElizabeth]

This was cool to see! I went to a Rudolph Steiner school where all my classmates used their own hand made flutes during music....I had missed the class :( but inherited an old one. They were bamboo and had holes drilled and a cork in the mouth bit....sure its nearly three decades late but I may just make one after all! Thank you!

[hillbournesian]

That is great! Here in Japan we make them from bamboo- same principle, but we don't have to drill!

[Krischi]

NiCe, as a little kid we used to make these out of elder-sticks and hazelbush twigs, probably an even faster way... if youve got a sharp leatherman or swiss knive =)
Really brings up some niCe memmories !

[wyssmaster]

I finally made one of these last year after putting it off for I don't know six or seven, out of a walnut dowel. It looked great and sounded great, and then I tried to add more notes by drilling a couple holes...which ruined it completely. Even plugging the holes didn't make it sound as good as it did before. I'll have to look and see if there's some more information on how to make something with more tones

[NeuroWrangler]

Change the depth of the hole and you change the pitch so a slide whistle does exactly that. Drilling holes should change the pitch too since the tube is effectively longer when the holes are covered and shorter when the holes are uncovered.

[SteveRamsey]

Yes. It's easier for people to quickly identify them as my videos.

[eugenelenarz]

Regarding applying finish to the whistle:  If you want a shiny finish, you may use shellac; it's not toxic (in fact, it's edible).  If you want a soft lustre, I'd recommend Kerf's Wood Cream (or is it Kreme?).  I use the latter on the wooden spoons that I make for cooking.  Great whistle: I just finished making my first out of scrap wood to see whether, in fact, I can make one that works.  Next ones will be with cleaner wood and will be Xmas presents for grandsons.

[Engineer]

@Tom Polanske, it's the length of the pipe which determines the pitch. Longer = lower, shorter = higher. The diameter determines how many subharmonics there are in the tone. I've been building my own pipe organ from wood.. got drowned in this stuff :-)

[chachi]

Thank you Steve I searched and couldn't find it.... Thank you for doing the video on it I know a couple Grandkids who will be very happy and some parents who won't be Lmaooo Oh the joys of being a grandparent

[MrTimb]

Great video.... I was going nuts trying to figure out were the "more information" was last night .... how and my snow flakes turned out great! thanks

[thiswoodwork]

Nice one Steve, who would have known it was so easy to make a whistle!
Oh I also meant to ask you about your videos, I noticed a while back you branded your videos so to speak with the same WWMM design on each videos image. Have you found this is worth it?
Thanks, Alex.

[ironfu]

I wonder if drilling a few holes in it could give you a couple of notes to play on it, turn it into a simple recorder of sorts.

[RickMcQuay]

If ya wanna get fancy, drill out the notch that you cut by hand. Just need a jig for your drill press to drill a 45d angle.

[cah]

Notice when he says I'm gonna just eyeball it there is a drawing of a eye in the background

[thiswoodwork]

Thanks. I may have to steal that idea! :P

[mpcoleman]

Cool!!! It would be easy (maybe...) to modify this into a slide whistle. You'd have to drill all the way through and make the end adjustable.