Pibgorn-Pibgyrn--Cornpipe-Cornicyll-Zummarah

Welcome

A practical guide on how to make an elder pibgorn by Gerard KilBride, in the keys of C or D.

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Chanter

Tools

The Pibgorn chanter is made of Elder-Sambucus nigra

It can be found near ruined buildings and farm hedges.

There is much myth about the elder tree, it is called Ysgawen in Welsh and is known as the Queen of Trees, Hylde-moðer, the Elder Tree Mother, she rules the 13th moon in the Ogham calendar, the ending of the old year and beginning of the new at Samhain.

More can be read here..

http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/elder.htm

I cut the chanter blanks in October when the tree is shutting down for winter and the berries have all gone. Great care must be taken as there is much superstition surrounding the cutting this tree. As a gesture I always tidy around the tree and only cut what is needed. You will find the chanter length is naturally defined by the distance of the knots in the wood growth.

My chanter is 220mm long, with the tenons being 20mm long leaving a central section of 180mm. I cut between knots in the elder branch which I aim to be about 250mm long. The Ideal finished width of the chanter is about 20mm when the bark is removed so the ideal cut raw width should be about 26mm.

I would look for elder that has a slight bend, which they naturally do. This curve can be seen in the old pibgyrn at the Museum of Welsh Life, St Fagans.

The diameter of the pithy centre varies from piece to piece, but in the branches I cut it's roughly 6mm. I debark the elder blanks straight away, care should be taken as the bark is a strong purgative, its use dating back to Hippocrates. It can make you feel very sick. I use an old coat hanger and push out the pith centre, then I use a long 5.5mm hss drill bit to clean out the centre.

I leave the chanter to dry in the workshop for a few months, you can use them straight away as I am sure they were, but the tenons will shrink and if you try to put waxed hemp on the tenons they will distort. The holes will vary and tuning will be needed to be redone many times.

When dry I round off the the chanter with a block plane. It normally ends up oval with a finished width about 20mm but this varies.
I finish off with sandpaper and leave it without any varnish or stain, as in time it will take on its own patina. Varnish if you like but I would wait until all the holes are drilled and tuned, and it has dried.

Cutting the tenons is done with a craft knife and then a flat file, available from

http\\www.dick.biz

The finished size should be 14mm wide and 20mm long, I don't use cotton thread on the finished tenons, but if you make them a little small you can put some cotton on, but not too tight as this will distort the tenon. I would use a bow-rope lapping technique with waxed thread. Start with a horizontal thread and then wind backwards over the thread and finish off with two timber hitches.

Widen the central bore hole to 7mm along the lenght of the chanter, which should give you an approximate C base note, at the reed end widen the bore to 7.5mm for the whole length of the top tenon 20mm and no more, this is called the reed seat and is need to be widened to accommodate the reed.

I mark the holes from the bottom end of the reed tenon, marking 18mm down and then place the first hole, then working downwards marking equal spaced centres of 26mm . I use a 3mm drill bit to start. The thumb back hole is drilled 12mm down from the top tenon.

Tuning.

I begin by using a reed that I know works well. I know this is a bit chicken and egg but it may take many reeds before you make a good one, you can start by buying excellent Synthetic Basque Alboka Reeds which work very well and are stable and sound excellent and worth the 60 euro cost. The best are made by Osses who's email address I will forward if asked, or you could try and buy one from an established maker.

First, adjust the chanter to make the octaves in tune, by moving the reed in and out of the reed seat. When the octaves are set (without worrying which note is produced) we should be roughly around C to D. You can lower or raise the bass note later. I then tune each note by ear working from the bottom up, enlarging the holes to raise the pitch of the note. I use tone hole cutters bought from:

www.dick.biz

You will need the 3 smallest sizes. You can use a tuner if it is easier as it will take many fine tuning runs to get it right.

You will most likely need to raise the pitch of the whole chanter, which should be between C and D. To do this the central bore can be enlarged. By drilling out the central bore hole, you will raise the pitch and a drill bit .5mm wider will raise the note by about 25 cents of a note.

I buy the drill bits from

http://www.axminster.co.uk

try and get extra long hss wood bits.

If you need to lower the chanter pitch the reed tongue can be lifted slightly which will drop the scale or you can add mass to the reed by placing a small blob of beeswax on the tongue end.

see also the reed adjustment section.

Incidentals

I have now made many chanters with working/intune incidentals on both C and D chanters in Cherry, which enables you to play in C and D minor..

Having larger distances between the hole centres will give you more chance of working incidentals. On a C chanter as above with a total length of 260mm, the bottom D hole is 212mm from the absolute top, with the others at 31mm centres, working upwards.

All chanters should play incidentals if they don't I would guess the holes are not in the optimum position, and your maker hasn't figured this out yet.

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Horn

, - Horn

Boiling the Horn

Luckily, I have a vet who provides me with fresh horn, mainly from the Hereford breed of cattle, which tend to be a little smaller than Welsh Black horn.
Most vets just dispose of the horns, so try asking a farm vet if they can pass a few your way.

To remove the inside flesh you will need to boil the horns in water for several hours. I would do this outside as it is pretty smelly.

After a about 1.5 hours the insides of the horn will soften and you will be able to prise them out relatively easily.

If they are still solid you will need to leave the horn simmering for a bit longer, when the inside is soft I use a kitchen knife to cut around the inside of the horn, a bit like an oyster, and then pull the soft tissue out with my hands. It will still be very hot???

Once the horn is cleaned out I leave them overnight in a bucket of Baby Bottle sterilizing solution to reduce the smell and then leave to air dry and season for several months.

the traditional method is written as...

"the horns of a fully grown bullock, with a gentle curve and perfectly free from blemish, were cleaned and rubbed, in front of a fire, with as much hog's lard as they would absorb and then left to mature for a year in a cool, dry place. After this, they were scraped out carefully with very fine sandpaper and a flexible cane, and the outside was scraped and polished until the horn was of the requisite thickness. The horn was then put into a very hot mixture, consisting of 9 parts of linseed oil and 2 of turpentine. with a piece of beeswax about the size of a large walnut and a small stick of dried oak bark. There it was kept for three days, being kept hot all the time, After this is was hung in a chimney to dry and harden, after which it received its final polishing with fine sandpaper and was varnished with a fine solution of beeswax turpentine." ....Shore Shineyn

Apparently the term "green horn" was used for new settlers in the Americas who didn't wait to season their horns, resulting in a green fungus/mold growing on them?

You can buy fresh horn from

http://www.highlandhorn.com/

Buying seasoned horn.

Mysticum in Germany sell them as drinking horns, you will need the 0.2 litre horn as the others are too wide.

http://www.mysticum.de/Horn-work/Drinki ... -horn.html

also

Texas Leather craft sometimes have steer horn in stock

http://www.texasleathercraft.com/

Carving

I use an Opinel knife to remove horn quickly and later on I use the knife as a scraper. I also use a craft knife and a small woodworking chisel. I have heard that if you warm the horn with something like a heat gun it becomes easier to carve but I have not tried this yet.

I aim to make the walls of the horn 2mm thick, so it becomes like fine porcelain, it develops a timbre when it is thin enough a bit like tapping parchment. You will hear it start to ring as you work on it. You must leave extra thickness at the tenon end, at least 5 or 6mm wall thickness if you intend to have a flower-globe artichoke pattern.

Some people use a sanding linisher, which works well but is messy, noisy and everything happens so fast that can loose the sense of getting to know the horns properties and flaws.

I drill out a 13mm hole to take the chanter tenon, which ideally should have a depth of at least 15mm otherwise the horn will wobble on the chanter as it won't have long enough sides to grip.

Finishing

by Gerard KilBride

I like the horn 'scraper-finished' with visible tool marks. For a finer finish you can go down through the grades of sandpaper, starting at 80 grit and finishing with 1200 grit.

by Gerard KilBride

by Gerard KilBride

by Johnathan Shorland

by Gerard KilBride

by Gerard KilBride

Then you can use ground pumice stone, wire wool, burnish in a drill and finally, wax the horn or use t-cut car polish.
Examples

by Gerard KilBride

by Gerard KilBride

by Gerard KilBride

by John Shorland

by Gerard KilBride

by John Glenydd

by John Tose

by Gerard KilBride

by Gerard KilBride

by Gerard KilBride

by Gerard KilBride

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St Fagans Pibgyrn

, - St Fagans Pibgyrn

Thanks to Amgueddfa Werin Cymru / St Fagans: National History Museum for
allowing me to publish their photograph below of the pibgyrn in their
collections and also for allowing me access to photograph these
instruments in more detail.

Square decorated elder Pibgorn with tapered tenons. Chanter central section length 190mm adding 18mm and 24mm long tenons. Width 19mm x 20mm.

Bone Chanter Pibgorn.

An "eye" and tuning holes?

Foelas Pibgorn.

Elder round chanter-with straight tenons. Chanter central section length 140mm adding 14mm and 12.5 mm tenons. Width 17mm with slight variations. Copies of this chanter I have made play in the region of E - F, even G.

If you are interested in viewing the
pibgyrn, contact the Museum on (029) 20573500.

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Reeds

, - Reeds

Making reeds is an art, and it will take many attempts before you can make a good one.

Sourcing

I buy my raw cane from

http://www.medir.cat

They supply Arundo donax cane reed by the kilo, a kilo will last a very long time. I ask for 7mm to 7.5mm diameter. They are very good at sending the right size.

Phragmites australis is harder to get hold of and if you know of a supply please let me know.

Making

There is much written about making reeds and this is the guide I used to start. I think it's the best guide out there:

http://user.it.uu.se/~crwth/bagpipes/sw ... aking.html

My Pibgorn reeds are about 50mm long with an approximate tongue length of 38mm and width of 6mm. I cut down no more than 1/4 of the depth of the whole reed, any further is too much. A good reed should make the note F, slightly lower or higher doesn't really matter. Here are two wav files of the reed when cut.

Cane Reed

or

Alboka synthetic

I do not scrape the reed tongue to make it work or to raise or lower the note. I make them so they should work without removing the natural protective layer.

Once the layer has been scaped away, they become very suseptible to moisture and harder to keep stable.

Instead of a cotton tuning bridle I use a small piece of plastic pipe which is the best for small adjustments or an 8mm rubber plumbers o-ring. The pipe can be bought from a brewing shop, a 10mm outside diameter normally does the trick.I cut the pipe about 1mm thick, the plumbers o-rings can be bought at any plumbing supplier or diy shop.

If the ends need sealing I use red sealing wax as it looks great and does the job

My synthetic reeds are made from a pen, some plumbers O rings and the tounge made out of fibrecell, which is a kevlar synthetic clarinet/sax reed. You will need to cut the reed down to approx 38mm by 5mm by .9mm. But the success depends on the shape of the reed seat on the pen.

You can use thread to finish the reed seat end and use the whipping technique similar to the chanter tenon.

But I use insulation tape instead of thread. It puts less tension on the reed end, I have also seen Plumbers Mate tape used which works well but doesn't look as nice.

If I use the chanter in a bag I prefer to make an upcut reed which moves the tongue hinge at the sealed end of the reed and away from the moisture. I think most Swedish pipes use an upcut reed which keeps the moisture away fron the tounge.

I have also had some success with plastic reeds but they are alot quieter.

Adjusting the reed.

All adjustments are minute, try very small adjustments at first, it will take time and practice to master.

Lifting the tongue lowers the note and narrows the scale this can be done by inserting a hair into the tongue and moving it down towards the bridle or raising the tongue using heat setting or the warmth from your hands. lowering the tongue raises the note and extends the scale, or move the bridle further towards the tip.

Adding beeswax to the tip of the tongue lowers the note and removing beeswax raises the note, Olle Gällmo recommends scraping wood to raise the note, this works but I do everything I can to prevent this so that the natural outer layer is intact.

If the interval between Do and So is too narrow.---Lower the tongue or move the hair towards the tip.

If the interval between Do and So is too wide---Lift the tongue or move the hair towards the root.

If top Do is flat to bottom do insert the reed further into the reed seat, which will raise both notes but the top note more, and if the top Do is sharp, pull the reed towards you out from the reed seat.

If a single note is too sharp we can lower that note by adding beeswax to the top of the hole.

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