Combing...???

[Tommy Tucker]

I'm curious about the difference in combing on pipe drones.
Open combing
Closed combing
Full combing

I had a set of Gillanders & McLeod pipes that had combing on them. Nothing fancy but I thought nice looking pipes. Destroyed years ago when our house flooded I've been looking on-line and will one day replace them. I was wondering what the differences were.

Tommy

[wvpiper]

I'm curious about the difference in combing on pipe drones.
Open combing
Closed combing
Full combing

I had a set of Gillanders & McLeod pipes that had combing on them. Nothing fancy but I thought nice looking pipes. Destroyed years ago when our house flooded I've been looking on-line and will one day replace them. I was wondering what the differences were.

Tommy

Shame that, I bet those Gillanders & McLeod's would be worth some scratch.

Fully combed, I think, means the combing is found on the all drones, 'broken' only by the beading on the wood. Fully combed as opposed to plain turned (which has no combing or beading), which by the way I really like the look of!!

Open, closed, full, flat are I 'think' just the styles of combing.

A good place for bagpipe info is www.bobdunsire.com

If you want to see some nice sets of pipes, with many options, hand crafted head over to http://www.macphersonbagpipes.co.uk/ Doug apprenticed with Bert Gillanders. Just beautiful stuff with a good reputation.

I have McCallum's myself, but if/when I get a new set, this will be the maker.

[Mike S]

Two other superb, online resources for the Great Highland Bagpipe are:

http://www.thebagpipeplace.com/
http://www.bagpipejourney.com/

The main differences in turning patterns are Plain (no combing), Flat combed (patterns of lines, but no beading) and Full Beaded and Combed (both flat combing and rounded, beaded patterns). I happen to prefer Flat combing with no beading, which is what your G&M pipes evidently had.

MacLellan does some superb, vintage looking pattern pipes with flat combing among modern makers of quality:
http://www.highland-pipemaker.com/

[Tommy Tucker]

Hey wvpiper and Mike S,

Thank you guys for the help and helpful sites. I'll check them out.

Thanks again,

Tommy