How to Make a Whistle
Learn how to carve a whistle out of wood! This easy DIY project is simple enough to do with your kids and start passing along your love of woodworking to the next generation. Read on to learn how to carve a wooden whistle.
When I was a kid I loved to make noise and I was constantly looking for new ways to make noise.
One of the projects that I was always working on was trying to whittle something that would whistle, but I was never successful. I did learn how to use a carving knife pretty well with all the practice though!
The other day I was hanging out in my office, looking at my office recorder (who doesn’t have one of those?) and I realized that the top mouthpiece of the recorder, which does make a whistling sound, would be very easy to make with just a couple of tools.
It is also a fantastic project to do with some kids! I grabbed my business partner and friend Josh Nava’s kids and we rolled up our sleeves and got to work!
Find a Piece of Wood
The first step is to find a piece of wood. I used a piece of walnut I had lying around, but you could uneven use a scrap of a 2x6 from the hardware store.
You can get all of the tools needed for this project, and pretty much any other project, as well as all kinds of expert advice when you go to Woodcraft. They even have home delivery!
One thing you want to consider is that wood shrinks as it dries.
Whittle your wood down to a basic octagon shape, or a good shape and size to fit in your pocket!
Drill a Hole
The next step is to drill a hole through the center of your whistle, but not all the way through. The size of the hole doesn’t matter, the only thing it will change with the size of the hole is the sound (or pitch) of your whistle.
Center the hole as best as you can and be sure to drill straight up and down so the hole goes perfectly perpendicular through the whistle. Stop with about an inch left to go at the end of the whistle.
Drill the Escapement Hole
Take a saw and start carving through the end of the whistle (the end where the hole is), and saw about an inch below the bottom of the whistle. As soon as you see the saw teeth through the center hole, stop sawing. (This step is best watched to ensure you’re sawing the correct end.)
Then, at a slight angle, saw again just below the first cut until they meet. You now have an escapement hole.
Make a Reed
In order to make a reed, you have to use a wooden dowel. Now, if you used a piece of green wood to carve your whistle, you have to take into consideration that the green wood will shrink as it dries. In order to avoid the wood from shrinking around the dowel and cracking, essentially ruining your whistle, you have to make sure to carve out enough extra space where the dowel will go so as the green wood shrinks it creates a nice tight bond.
Carve down one side of the dowel to about 1/8th to 1/16th of an inch. But you don’t have to be too precise here, which is what makes this project really fun.
Insert the dowel into the whistle and make sure it lines up with the escapement. This is where you get to decide how you want your whistle to sound. Play around with the depth of the dowel, blowing on the whistle, until you get the tone that you want.
Once you find the depth you like, it’s now time to superglue the dowel into place. The nice thing about superglue is that it dries quickly and is instantly ready to cut.
Using a saw, cut off the end of the whistle at about a 45-degree angle.
Enjoy & Whistle Away!
You’re now ready to enjoy your whistle! If you want to learn how to do more DIY projects like this, check out some of my other blog posts below: