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Pasturage Tree Whistle Howto - DIY - Do it yourself - Maipfeiferl
This is a very fun small project when you're out in the woods for a walk in spring
time or early summer. Reason for this is that the bark of the wood must be
very soft and that is only the case and sometimes in early summer.
As I was a small boy, I used to go for excursions with my beloved Granddad
in the woods and always in spring we have been making those whistles, while sitting in the grass :-)
It is very easy to construct.
How it goes:
First find a straight piece of pasturage twig with a diameter of an adults thumb
and a length of about 20cm (~8-10inch). Also VERY important is that the bark
is perfect - no small branches, no "warts" etc.
Cut it with your pocket knife.
STEP 1:
Then carve the bark ( 1/3 from one end ) down to the wood - only to the wood. Ok, to be
sure, you can carve the wood a little - that doesn't make any difference.
Then, on the other end, cut a little piece out as show in the first graphic and all other graphics:
Here is a top view, so you can see how the little piece cut out should about look like:
STEP 2:
In the next step there is some patience needed. Take your pocket knife, pull out some longer metal part (NOT the
knife) and take it in your hand with the metal part, so that the plastic/wood part can be used to gently
knock on the pasturage stick.
Hold the stick on the 1/3, where you just carved the bark in step 1.
Now gently knock on the part from the carve to the other end (where you cut out the tiny piece)
FROM ALL sides for about 5-10 minutes. This loosens the bark. Make sure you don't injure the bark.
After 5 minutes you can gently try to twist the bark where you knocked on to.
If it doesn't move easily, knock further.
Finally, when you can turn it around very easily, pull it off gently as shown in the next graphic.
STEP 3:
Here is just the bark
STEP 4:
Now cut a small piece of the stick (not the bark) so, that it has exactly the length from the end
of the stick to the rightmost beginning of the hole in the bark. This is important, the small
piece of the stick must not be visible in the hole in the bark, when inserted!!! (you can adjust the small piece later if
the whistle doesn't sound good)
Now comes a rather critical part - when you do your first whistles, this is trial and error.
Take the small piece of the stick, and flatten it very little on one since with your knife.
Usually little less than a millimeter, but this depends on the diameter of the stick.
STEP 5:
If you have flattened it a little, put it into the bark as shown in STEP 5, so that the slightly
flattened part is up where the hole is. Look carefully in the graphic STEP 5.
Since the bark is now hollow, the dashed line indicates that hollow space, i.e. the inner border of the bark.
STEP 6:
Now take your knife and carefully clean the stick on the blank side, so that it can be easily moved in and out
later. Just rub the knife a little from right to left on all sides.
If scales of wood come off, you're doing WAY TO HARD. Gently!
After cleaning it gently you can put
the stick into the bark.
Here are the top views again. The first shows a whistle with a higher pitch ; the second one with the stick pulled
out to make a deeper whistle:
Note, that nothing of the small piece of the stick we cut off and flattened a little shows up in the hole!
Now blow into your whistle and move the stick in and out. With some practice, you can even play simple
songs. Enjoy :-)
Here is all in one graphic (for printing):
Last-Modified: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:00:55 GMT
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