Making Bagpipes by Casey Burns  

(Please note - permission to reprint this article in local 
Piping journals, etc. can be requested to me directly at 
cburns@kendaco.telebyte. com)

Introduction  
  
Bagpipe making and general wind instrument turning has been 
evolving for several hundreds of years and continues to evolve 
to this day. This essay presents an outline of my method of 
making bagpipes, as well as a few reflections on other methods.

This craft generally requires lathe work - experience at the 
lathe helps but is not entirely necessary! I enjoyed my first 
experiences at a lathe turning with my first instrument. I 
later humbly found out that my turning skills left alot to be 
desired after spending a precious month with a master wood 
turner who was learning wind instrument making from me. 
Therefore, I highly recommend that the novice bagpipe maker 
contact the American Association of Woodturners and make their 
acquaintance! Their local chapters conduct workshops and 
meetings where excellent information on woodturning may be 
obtained, as well as direct contact with some of the living 
masters of woodturning. The AAW may be contacted at c/o Mary 
Redig 667 Harriet Ave. Shoreview MN 55126. I will begin by 
describing the materials and tooling needed, followed by a 
discussion on dimensions and drawings. Then I will delve into 
actual construction, beginning with the bore, followed by 
outside turning. Then I will describe how I drill tone holes. 
Final setup and tuning and voicing will finish the construction 
part. Finally, I discuss some general aspects of wind 
instrument making.

Tooling  
 
The most important item for a wind instrument shop is a 
suitably equipped lathe - commonly though not exclusively a 
high speed metal lathe, with at least 18" or so between the 
centers. I use an old Atlas 6" lathe which I have modified  
slightly. Several makers prefer the Myford Super 7. The lathe 
should have tapered roller bearings in the headstock, as 
opposed to sleeve bearings, for the higher speed capacity.

I have stripped this lathe of the screw cutting assembly, which 
until recently I kept handy for when I needed the slow feed for 
turning metal (I now have a nice old Sheldon 11 x 44 with quick 
change gears and much greater accuracy for metal turning). 
Various common accessories like chucks and different kinds of 
centers are useful. One of the most useful items is a 1/2 Morse 
2 collet and drawbar. The tailstock I equipped with a large 
diameter revolving center. It is also important that the 
spindle apparatus of the tailstock be removeable - for this 
setup.

I have fitted this lathe also with a number of common wood 
turning type tool rests - 2 of which mount on the compound 
slide rest and are therefore easily positionable. A number of 
turning scrapers of different sizes and shapes live on the 
bench next to the lathe. These are mostly made from old files, 
tool bits and even concrete nails and dental tools! The only 
actual authentic turning tool is a small spindle gouge.

By removing the drive spindle apparatus, I can slide the slide 
rest off the lathe and set it up exclusively for hand turning. 
To mount on the slide rest, I have made a number of tool blocks 
of aluminum that require a 1/2 wrench to quick change. One of 
these carries a boring bar, another a cutoff bit, and finally 
one that carries a conventional lathe bit ground into a "gouge" 
tool.

The lathe must be equipped with an appropriate steady rest, a 3 
jaw chuck, as well as some carriage stop fixture. On my lathe I 
use a bar of steel and a vise grip with softened jaws.

Other tools that are used in my shop include various D bit 
drills made from drill rod, hollow gun drills (made by 
Eldorado), compressed air, common drill bits of various sizes, 
and finally a Milling Machine - which is used primarily as a 
precision drill press, as well as a high speed buffer (probably 
not the most appropriate use!). Other tools that come in very 
handy include a Foredom handpiece tool and various cutters, as 
well as the common tools that are found in a home workshop.

My workshop is my own personal 20 year amalgamation of tools 
that I have acquired, collected, absorbed, etc. Minimal 
requirements for bagpipe making require some sort of lathe and 
drill press.

Reamers and Drills
  
There has been much written on this subject in various 
journals. Essentially, bores of wind instruments are rarely 
straight tapered - instead there are several acoustically 
significant bumps and grinds. Therefore, custom reamers need to 
be made. However, Northumbrian pipes and Scottish Smallpipes 
are mostly cylindrically bored - therefore - these do not need 
reamers, mostly. The Scottish smallpipe tapers below the last 
vent hole - a hardware store reamer works well for this.

My best bagpipe reamers have been carefully ground from 
prehardened tool steel. Jointer blade steel works very well for 
this, because of its hardness and tensile strength. I grind 
these wet, to keep the steel from burning. The reamers have a 
"D" cross section, and cut well at medium speed.

Larger reamers (such as for flutes) are turned to shape. Then a 
1/4 section is removed from them by milling. The resulting edge 
is ground and then burnished.

Common twist drills may be used to drill bores, but are likely 
to twist. I use them to start the bore - but most of the 
drilling is done with the gun drill, which is held in the 
tailstock in place of the tailstock spindle. Compressed air 
blows through the drill, and blows chips out the long flute. 
These drills are very impressive, and feature carbide tips. 
They are also rather expensive. Drill rod, on the other hand, 
is quite cheap. D bits may be made from these - I swedge the 
ends a little wider before grinding the cutting end to shape so 
that they have relief.

To make a D bit, 1/2 of the diameter of the drill is cut away, 
leaving a surface for chips to collect. The cutting end is then 
shaped to an angle - with the outside contacting edge being the 
leading edge. The end is then hardened and tempered.

Materials
 
Any medium to dense turning wood is suitable for bagpipe making 
as long as it is not porous, or likely to warp and check. 
Traditional woods include the ebonies, rosewoods including 
Blackwood, boxwood and fruitwoods.
    
Other useful materials include sandpaper in 120, 220, 320 and 
600 for finishing. Raw linseed oil and super glue are used for 
a finish. Finally, various materials such as bone, artificial 
ivory or horn are turned for mounts.

Dimensions and Drawings
 
The best source of information on dimensions of bagpipes are 
the instruments themselves - especially if they are working. 
Antique instruments in museums and collections may sometimes be 
studied - usually, these will have previously been measured and 
most museums are willing to make copies, sometimes for a small 
fee. A problem with museum specimens is knowing whether or not 
they played well - and at what pitch. Another problem is access 
- most museums are not willing to let unskilled hands handle 
their treasures!

Published drawings of instruments are sometimes available - 
although commonly disappointing and barely adequate. However, 
with experience the maker can overcome these shortcomings and 
find this information useful. The Northumbrian Pipes book by 
Cocks and Bryan is a noticeable exception. The pipes in this 
book are very well drawn and carefully detailed.

I am hoping next year to render several drawings of pipes I 
have measured available in book format, along with an expanded 
and illustrated version of this text.

First Steps

The wood for the pipes must be cut into turning squares 
approximately 35 by 35 mm or more as needed - and trimmed to 
slightly more than their finished lengths. Each square is then 
carefully machined into a true cylinder. Again - a metal lathe 
with cross slide mounted tools facilitates this. The 
cylindricalness will be useful shortly for using a steady rest.

Alternatively, the wood can be turned in the conventional 
fashion, using a skew or a spindle gouge. A flutemaker I know 
does this - and then uses a 1-3/8" bearing glued to a block of 
wood as a steady, which is clamped to the ways. The end of the 
turning blank is trimmed to fit this bearing using a 1-3/8" box 
wrench, with the "lower" edge cut into a nice chisel (it 
automatically trims the wood to diameter!).

I prefer to use a cup center in the headstock as opposed to 
spur centers for 2 reasons. One is that I can relocate the wood 
on the center if necessary. The other reason is that if the 
wood catches and stops revolving, nothing will happen - no 
flying splinters, etc. This added degree of safety makes the 
process more enjoyable.
 
Boring Out

Now the spindles are ready to receive pilot bores. The 3 jaw 
chuck is attached to the headstock and the steady rest is 
clamped to the ways. A spindle is mounted in the chuck and the 
outboard end is supported by the steady rest. On my lathe, the 
steady rest has 3 brass pins which center the work. I lubricate 
the contact with beeswax, applied while revolving. I sometimes 
turn off a little bit of wood to each side of the contact point 
- especially in harder woods such as Blackwood, to keep the 
points from heating and charring the wood. I have seen newer 
steadies with revolving points that do not require this.

I have also seen a home built lathe built to accomodate the 
diameter of the work - so that the work may be clamped on the 
end - rather than use a 3 jaw and steady. The headstock is made 
from aluminum, with large truck bearings supporting a spindle 
made from 2" pipe. A pipe flange supports a carefully mounted 3 
jaw chuck. The steady rest becomes unnecessary. I hope to build 
myself one of these lathes after I build my new workshop!

The spindle is removed from the tailstock, and a hollow 
gundrill is clamped in its place. I have a 5/32" gun drill for 
piloting my bagpipe bores. A small pilot hole is drilled for a 
few mm. I drill this undersize and true it if necessary - or 
the drill will wander too far off sometimes! Then as the work 
revolves, the drill is applied, with compressed air supplied 
from the rear to blow out the chips. The drill has to be 
frequently withdrawn to clean the chips. Beeswax is the 
preferred lubricant. ALternatively, a D bit made from drill rod 
may be used - but this will be much slower for obvious reasons!

There will be some wander. After boring out the spindles, I 
center the spindles again by mounting them between centers - 
this time using the bore for my centerpoints and having the pin 
in the cup center extended just a little. The outside is turned 
concentric with the bore. One excellent feature of gun drills 
is that although they may wander, the bores themselves have 
very little runout. This is also true for D bits.

I use the expensive gun drill to pilot the bore. I then use 
less expensive D bits and even long twist drills to drill out 
the bores to finish diameter. Sometimes the work is held in the 
hand, and the drill held in a headstock chuck, or I use the 
previous method.

Sockets are also drilled - I prefer to drill them out undersize 
while the recentered workpiece is revolving and is supported by 
the steady rest. I then ream them out with a carefully sized 
straight machinists reamer of appropriate diameter. Stocks are 
bored using a larger D bit - usually a 3/4" or 7/8" for French 
bagpipes.
 
Multiple drone stocks such as for a smallpipe are drilled using 
a drill press (I use my milling machine). This block is 
sometimes turned before drilling.

Boring a Conical Chanter
 
For chanters, I will step bore the wood to an approximation of 
the internal taper, in steps of 1/16" to 1/8". I cut just a 
little shy of the target depth/diameter. Once the bore has been 
stepped, I then prepare to ream. The reamers are mounted in the 
headstock chuck and revolve at medium speed. The chanter blank 
is held by the hands, and applied to the reamer with just 
enough force to cut without binding. As the reaming process is 
underway, I stop from time to time to measure the bore, using 
an inside measuring gauge at several points - so that I obtain 
the correct diameters.

I usually use a suite of reamers to develop a specific bore 
profile. Of course, one reamer correctly dimensioned will work 
- but I prefer to experiment. An additional factor is that the 
reamer, no matter how carefully made, may not cut exactly to 
the preferred diameter at all points. In fact, this is rarely 
the case for these narrow bores. Using several reamers in 
combination will overcome this.

Before turning the outside....

Once everything is bored, I sometimes machine the ends of the 
spindles so that they are true and square, if I don't plan to 
do this as part of the outside turning. At this point, I 
sometimes find flaws in the wood - those pieces are discarded. 
I like to soak the pieces in linseed oil at this point as well.

This is also the time to apply mounts, if they are to be used 
on these pipes - with the exception of metal chased mounts, 
which are added later. The mount is rounded, and then bored and 
turned to its final ID, using a boring bar (the work is held in 
the 3 jaw). The stock to receive the mount is centered between 
cup or a conical center (if the diameter is large enough) and 
live center, and a corresponding shoulder is turned for the 
mount - I use a modified cutoff tool for this operation. The 
mount is then glued to the spindle using epoxy. Note that it is 
best to do this BEFORE soaking the joint in linseed oil.

Outside Turning
 
The joints are then allowed to drain for a few days or weeks if 
possible. Then they are turned between centers to their 
finished profiles. I usually rough the profiles with the gouge 
tool on the cross slide. Then hand tools are used to finish the 
profiles. Tenons are turned to dimension using a modified 
cutoff tool so that they are cylindrical.

I support the work at the headstock in a variety of fashions. 
The cup center works well for narrow bores. Otherwise, if there 
is a socket - or for conical bored chanters, I support the work 
with the wider end near the headstock with a conical center. On 
my lathe I use a center held in the headstock spindle with a 
collet and drawbar.

Once the shape is roughed out, I use a wide scraper to fair the 
curves. I use smaller profiled scrapers and point tools to cut 
ornamental beads. Mounts are turned similarly and become part 
of the profile. The process of turning the outside is best 
learned by experience! It is no different than chair spindle 
turning.

"Combing" is applied with a point tool, or with a small 
triangular file.

Finally, I sand the profiles until I have sanded with all 
grades of sand paper. I then apply a finish. This can be a 
simple paste wax and oil. However, I use a Linseed oil and 
superglue finish applied in this manner:

DO THIS WITH ADEQUATE VENTILATION!!! I fold a couple of paper 
towels into a small pad. I put about a tablespoon of raw 
linseed oil on the towel. Then a few drops of super glue are 
applied - right to the oil. This is then applied to the 
revolving wood and rubbed on. I will add a number of coats, 
buffing in between.

Once, Jim McGill and I were turning a chanter out of a very 
fine grained ebony called African Black Ivory. We applied 
several coats, buffing well in between. Eventually, the chanter 
achieved a very high gloss. We then realized that only in very 
strong light could you determine that it was wood. It looked 
like we had turned it into ABS plastic instead!

Drilling Fingerholes
 
The fingerholes are carefully laid out on the chanter. I then 
mount the chanter between special blocks with centers which are 
mounted on the table of the milling machine. The finger holes 
are drilled in line - using the travel of the milling table to 
position. Each hole is drilled a few 10ths of a mm undersize - 
or more if I am uncertain of my dimensions. The thumb hole is 
drilled after carefully rotating the chanter so that the 
fingerholes are pointing straight down. A mirror helps this.

Alternatively, the wood could be drilled by holding it in a 
simple V block (made with a tablesaw) and sliding the v block 
on the drill press table. In any case, I lightly hone the 
leading edge of the drill bits to a neutral angle - so that the 
bits don't catastrophically pull through the wood leaving 
splinters behind!
 
Setup, Tuning and Voicing

I make a bag, tie on the stocks using artificial sinew 
(available from Tandy Leather), attach a valve to the blowpipe 
and thread everything up. See my comments elsewhere in the 
Bagpipe newsgroup for more information on that. Reeds are 
fitted to the drones and tuned. Finally, a good chanter reed is 
made - tested on a similar instrument if one is available.

The chanter is tuned note by note. Each hole, starting at the 
bottom, is carefully reamed out until the note is slightly flat 
to the final pitch. I go all the way up, blowing out chips as I 
go. Finally, the final tuning is accomplished by careful and 
judicious undercutting of each hole. The undercutting is done 
using a little cylindrical cutter mounted in a handpiece 
(Foredom). The bottom holes are never undercut - since this 
affects those notes poorly. Knowing exactly how much to cut 
with reaming and undercutting is a skill that is learned by 
practice! Wax and tape are used remedially...

Finally, the outsides are again oiled - the entire instrument 
is cleaned inside and out of chips, and then the outside is 
buffed. At this point, the instrument is more or less done. 
However, I sometimes keep my pipes around longer, to play them 
for a few weeks and play them in. I discover a few minor 
problems here and there, and correct them. Also, a new chanter 
reed is supplied - as the tuning process sometimes ruins the 
reed (from sawdust mostly).

The Tradition of Wind Instrument Making

Most people think of wind instruments in terms of the 
relatively mundane instruments of the orchestra. In reality, 
woodwinds are found in almost every culture, and require a 
classification resembling that of the natural kingdom. 
Geographically, wind instruments are as widely ranging as the 
lathe, the primary tool required to make them. Historically, 
wind instrument making and the lathe are closely woven 
together. For the turner, investigation of this fascinating 
technology rewards one with new ideas that are sprung from the 
old. Woodwinds are classified according to the acoustical 
mechanism by which they sound. Broadly speaking, there are the 
flutes, which include many historical and ethnic precursors to 
the one we are familiar with, including the recorder, the Irish 
whistle and even certain organ pipes. Then there are the single 
reeds - these include the clarinet and its precursors, plus 
many bizarre ethnic forms of this instrument that defy exact 
classification. The oboe and bassoon are members of the double 
reed family, which also includes many shawms of different 
cultures, various Renaissance instruments such as the krumhorn 
and rackett, and many others.

Finally there are the bagpipes, which use both single and 
double reeds, but are unusual by their method of aspiration. 
When people think of bagpipes they think of Scotland, where 
this woodwind arrived relatively late. There are over 250 
species of bagpipe known. The scope of this tradition can be 
put in somewhat better perspective by considering the number of 
turners involved. A catalog of European makers, all turners, 
lists approximately 5000 from the Renaissance to the present 
who bothered to sign their work; this is just the tip of the 
iceberg. Here exists a technology directly relevant to the 
turner that has its roots in antiquity, has achieved a full and 
varied expression, and continues to evolve to this day. Similar 
to many forms of artistic expression, the evolution of wind 
instrument turning followed cultural explorations. We find 
evidence of early single reed types of instruments in Egyptian 
tombs which are now found throughout the Mediterranean. Oboe 
type instruments evolved in China and headed west along trade 
routes.

Along with these instruments was the technology to make them - 
i.e., the lathe! As cultures emerged, their instruments 
developed into distinct forms defined by local traditions and 
practices. Finally, the artistic excesses of the European 
Renaissance and Baroque created a situation where instrument 
makers could barely keep up with a rapidly evolving and 
changing artistic expression.

Unfortunately, in the last 150 years, such demands were put on 
the maker for acoustical perfection that the technology which 
created beautiful and delicately turned ivory flutes, boxwood 
oboes with engine turned mounts, etc. was left behind so that 
now we think of wind instruments in simplified, mass produced 
terms. We almost lost the underlying current of ethnic wind 
instrument making, which continued to evolve at its leisurely 
pace until the two world wars almost completely obliterated it.

In the last 20 years, there has been a new renaissance which 
has rediscovered what was almost lost to us. Although many of 
the practices were lost, their results are not difficult to 
uncover in the hundreds of collections that are known to exist. 
In the isolated places where the tradition remained unbroken, 
fascinating clues to the past may be found, if one looks hard 
enough. In northern Africa one can find instrument makers 
turning with a bow lathe, sitting on the ground and using their 
feet as the tool rest. A friend of mine recently met some 
Scottish bagpipe makers in Pakistan (where, actually, many of 
the pipes used in American pipe bands come from) who were using 
western lathes bolted to the floor and were surrounded by 
mountains of turning squares, completed bagpipe parts, turning 
debris and, of course, the ever present hooka (also turned, by 
the way!) which the turner found a need to frequently use!

Today most wind instrument turners approach their art sideways 
- usually they studied some instrument such as the flute since 
childhood through college, and then chose to become a maker of 
historical varieties - reproducing the past. Or they have an 
interest in some ethnic music, and find that they must provide 
the tools to be able to create this music. Most are self 
taught. There is a preoccupation with what the instruments 
should exactly sound like. The sound of the instrument depends 
upon the shape created by the bore - that is, the wood on the 
inside that has been carefully removed. Some makers are myopic 
because of this preoccupation and regard the turning aspect of 
this craft as a somewhat painful necessity and refer to it 
disparagingly as "furniture making"! However, a wind instrument 
maker who can use a skew chisel carefully is hard to find! 
Until a few years ago, I had yet to discover the joys of the 
spindle gouge! In the past, a strong integration existed 
between turning and wind instrument making. Because the craft 
is undergoing rediscovery by musicians who become turners out 
of necessity, isolation from the rest of the turning world has 
created conditions for the evolution of techniques specific to 
this craft. Fortunately, as with "regular turning" (alas, my 
bias as a wind instrument turner reveals itself!), there are 
personalities and innovaters who have approached this craft 
scientifically and are more or less responsible for "guiding 
the masses" as it were.

The surface treatment of wind instruments varies greatly, 
following historical examples. In the classical music arena, 
some of the best examples of turning date from the French and 
English Baroque and are widely copied - finely executed rings, 
graceful shapes and ornaments of ivory, sometimes ornamentally 
turned, are to be found. Researches of the last 15 years have 
uncovered a rich turning tradition in the many varieties of 
European bagpipes, especially those of the French, which are 
also traced to the Baroque along certain lines. In these 
bagpipes, one may find the use of several different kinds of 
woods and polychromatic inlays of pewter, horn, bone and ivory.

There are certain claims from the past as to the woods used for 
turning and their preparation. Boxwood was cut into squares, 
turned, pilot bored, waxed and left buried in manure for twenty 
years before it would hold up to the rigors of repeated wetting 
and drying of playing. Instead of sawing wood on a bandsaw, 
blanks were cleaved out of the log to insure against any 
defects or irregularities - although at great cost! Today, the 
woods most commonly employed include boxwood, ebony, blackwood 
and other rosewoods, fruitwoods, olive, cocus and maple, 
providing it is hard enough. Almost any hard and fine grained 
turning wood is suitable provided it has some stability. One 
technique for improving the stability of some woods such as 
boxwood is to microwave the partially bored and turned blank 
(endgrain is sealed!) followed by soaking and a prolonged 
period of drying - this process is akin to sizing fabric.

The elegant look of ivory is hard to resist for some makers - 
which is a dilemma many of us have to consider. Because ivory 
that is not seasoned for many years is too unstable to use, 
especially for complete instruments, antique ivory is most 
commonly used. Unfortunately, this competes with the other 
demands for ivory which is contributing to the demise of the 
elephant, and so alternatives have been sought. Ordinary beef 
bone, cut from femurs and knuckles turns very well and is 
convincing - although it lacks the slightly creamy color of 
ivory. To process this bone, it is best to contact a local 
butcher, freeze the bone (and attached meat!), bandsaw it to 
length, then boil it for a few hours in several changes of 
baking soda water until it is free of meat and grease, then 
bleach it in the sun for several weeks. In the past, when I 
have used Ivory, it has usually been fossil ivory from Alaska.

For me the process of turning bone or ivory is unhealthy, even 
with a good dust mask and dust collection equipment. I have 
turned enough of it to feel a heaviness in the lungs so that I 
no longer, along with ethical reasons, use it. Instead, I have 
found a completely nontoxic "alternative ivory" made of 
polyester resin that is manufactured in England. This material 
is a joy to turn, unlike every other plastic alternative I have 
tried, such as Corion. It drills well, is capable of fine 
detail, and has the color and feel of ivory. I also don'’t have 
to conserve every single chip of it. This material is 
affordable, and is available.

Finally, once the "furniture making" is completed, the musical 
skills of the wind instrument maker are put to the test, tuning 
and voicing the instrument. In addition to the skills of the 
machinist and woodworker, the woodwind maker must be able to 
cope with reedmaking, which is a highly specialized art in 
itself, and he must also be an accomplished performer on the 
instrument he or she is creating - or at least have a strong 
idea of what it should sound like. Usually making and playing 
develop hand in hand, especially with unusual varieties of 
woodwinds. I have found this to be the case with French 
bagpipes, which, along with flutes, are another specialty. Once 
the instrument is sounding perfectly, the processes of resawing 
the wood, making reamers and turning the pieces seems to fade 
in significance! Making the music is the primary joy of wind 
instrument making! 

Casey Burns 9962 Shorty Campbell Road 
Kingston WA 98346 (360) 297-4020 
cburns@kendaco.telebyte. com 
homepage URL is http://kendaco.telebyte.com/cburns