badging a WWII Battledress jacket

[OC Richard]

Great job on the impression, Richard. Do you run cane in the Lawries, just to go for full authenticity. I hear that cane helps a piper work on period authentic cussing. I liked your composition on the work in progress photos, too. Very cool. My son does WWII re-enacting--Russian partisan. Must show this thread to him. Keep up the good work, well done!

JMB

Thanks so much!

Yes at one WWII thing I saw some Russian re-enactors, very cool. There's nothing like running around with that huge drum magazine! (Regular Russian troops.)

No, not cane! When I started playing the pipes, 40 years ago, cane was all there was! I've spent countless hours messing with cane reeds, and I'm done with it. Those Lawries absolutely sing with Kinnairds (old ones, not Evolution). Oddly, EzeeDrones won't play worn a darn in those Lawries.

What I need to get now is a chanter that looks period-correct, with the huge ivory sole. Ivory isn't an option anymore, so I'm thinking about custom-ordering a McCallum chanter with the big old-school sole in imitation ivory. I do have the chanter that came with those Lawries, a 1960s Hardie with matching thistle-engraved silver sole. I suppose I should play that chanter when I'm doing the WWII thing.

It's hard for a piper to recreate WWII piping, because they didn't use tape on their chanters back then! All the tuning had to come from expert reed-work. When I attended a piping school back around 1980 under Pipe Major Evan MacRae (former Cameron Highlanders Pipe Major, and a WWII veteran) he did a chanter reed workshop where he explained the exact spot to shave a chanter reed to fix each note of the chanter. It's an art that's been lost, now that we stick any old reed in there and fix the bad scale with tape.

[Blupiper]

Thanks so much!

Yes at one WWII thing I saw some Russian re-enactors, very cool. There's nothing like running around with that huge drum magazine! (Regular Russian troops.)

No, not cane! When I started playing the pipes, 40 years ago, cane was all there was! I've spent countless hours messing with cane reeds, and I'm done with it. Those Lawries absolutely sing with Kinnairds (old ones, not Evolution). Oddly, EzeeDrones won't play worn a darn in those Lawries.

What I need to get now is a chanter that looks period-correct, with the huge ivory sole. Ivory isn't an option anymore, so I'm thinking about custom-ordering a McCallum chanter with the big old-school sole in imitation ivory. I do have the chanter that came with those Lawries, a 1960s Hardie with matching thistle-engraved silver sole. I suppose I should play that chanter when I'm doing the WWII thing.

It's hard for a piper to recreate WWII piping, because they didn't use tape on their chanters back then! All the tuning had to come from expert reed-work. When I attended a piping school back around 1980 under Pipe Major Evan MacRae (former Cameron Highlanders Pipe Major, and a WWII veteran) he did a chanter reed workshop where he explained the exact spot to shave a chanter reed to fix each note of the chanter. It's an art that's been lost, now that we stick any old reed in there and fix the bad scale with tape.

Richard:

Maybe you could go Old School on the chanter tuning and use those little dabs of putty in the chanter holes to tune. It would take a real sharp eye to see it (although with the 'stitch counters' of the reenactor world, you might have to do some explaining.) Or go for a more 'persona'-driven impression and tell 'em to bugger off. Just a thought.

JMB