Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

5

8 5 24 20121206 24 wood, rods of Delrin and art ivory. Other bins held polished nickel silver ferrules of various sizes wrapped in tissue, brass and steel rods and tubes. There was a nearly finished stand of uilleann pipe drones in C made of blackwood, art ivory and chromed metal on the workshop table. On the wall a dozen pliers with a dozen different noses, in a dozen different sizes, were arranged neatly on a peg board. Other shelves held boxes covered in dust out from which peaked drone tops, chanter ends, and other temptations. There were three metal lathes, a machine that doubled as a drill press and milling machine, and a band saw. Large halo- gen lights, such as you see at construction sites or night time car wrecks, lit the place up and kept us warm. A large shop vacuum cleaner covered in wood dust hid behind one of the lathes. Cushy rubber mats covered the cement floor in places. Through the small window we could see white caps forming on Donegal Bay. Ray showed us how to mount our blanks of wood in the lathes and turn them true. The process of making a chanter took most of the five days we worked with Ray. The block was turned round, and trued again after the first bore is drilled. The conical bore of the chanter is first bored in stages using different sizes of drills that progress in order of largest to smallest, each one going in a bit further than the last. A gun drill makes the all important throat of the chanter. Compressed air travels through a hose attached to the base of the drill, through the drill itself and out the cutting edge, blowing the drilled out material away from the blade. This method insures that the bore is even and straight. Then an expensive steel reamer, made in Ger- many to Ray’s specifications, is used to clear the bore of ledges left by the stepped drilling process. The interior bore is extremely impor- tant. It is the holy of holies in chanter design. The chanter is then given more of its shape on the lathe, in- cluding beads for the key blocks. After finger holes are drilled the key blocks are trimmed on the band saw and a bastard file is used to smooth off the rough edges. Then the chanter is sanded and sanded, cut to the right length, and Ray inserts the throat. This is the magical point when the chanter makes its first sound. After that Ray taught us how to add mounts and ferrules, finish the wood, make the cap and wind way, and make an adapter so we can plug the chanter into our Scottish smallpipe bags. This involved solder- ing the metal pieces together, more careful turning on the lathe, and sanding, sanding, sanding, polishing, polishing, polishing. We also learned how to make a chanter reed. “Learned” might be too grand a word to use in this context. After I make another hundred as nice as the one I made under Ray’s careful supervi- sion I might say I’ve “learned” the art of making a reed. Still, my other attempts at making a reed, even under the careful supervision of other reed makers, were, at best, miserable. On my return I ordered more cane from Ray’s source and have been putting together the tools Ray uses, which Barry Shears, Ray Sloan and John Dally

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