a tale of two bagpipes

[Bluescelt]

Our clan piper plays a set of Robertsons and they do sound great.

[KD Burke]

In the past year, I've been asked by friends on two occasions to look at some "really old" bagpipes that they had been gifted.

In both cases, my first clue as to the origin was a white, plastic mouthpiece on the blowstick.

I'm afraid I had to tell my friends that the pipes were neither old nor valuable (nor playable!).

[Blupiper]

Thanks for the primer, Richard. I thought the top pipes looked like Sialkot products, but am not really good at identifying pipes. Some of the things that stood out for me were: The dinged up metal on the first set, indicative of a very soft metal, not well cared for. Even though the picture is a bit blurry, you can see the reflections of the dings on the mounts, similar to the dull spots on a knife blade. The combing (little close together lines) on the wood turning showed some differences, as well. The first set had what seemed to be grosser, less fine combing, while the Robertsons had even, delicate, fine combing. The beading (slightly rounded areas between the combing) was also finer on the Robertsons. I didn't count, but often the numbers of grooves in the combing between poor and quality pipes is uneven. Quality: always the same number, less quality: variable numbers of grooves in the combing. The inclusion of both heart- and sapwood on the Sialkot pipes was in direct contrast to the quality of matched wood on the Robertsons. A better finish on the Robertsons contrasted with the thicker, goopier finish of the other set. On a personal note, I found the engraving of the thistle pattern on the Robertsons to be lovely. Great contrast. Thanks for the pics.

JMB

PS--we readers shouldn't sweat the hose clamps on the Robertsons. They are often a better choice to seal the stocks when synthetics bags are used.

[OC Richard]

Thanks guys!

Yes when you're evaluating vintage pipes what you ignore, pretty much, are the ancillary things like bag, cords, and cover. Also vintage pipes (and oftentimes not-so-vintage pipes) rarely are sold with their original chanter. Blowpipes often crack and are replaced, and pipers will often have a favourite make of blowpipe which they play in whatever set they're playing. So with vintage pipe ID you're looking at the drones.

Even new pipes often have a chanter and blowpipe of different make. Depending on the retailer, a new set can be ordered with a chanter and/or blowpipe of a different make.

Trouble is, for unknowing Ebay sellers, is that the only obvious maker's stamps are on the chanter. So one sees pipes being sold all the time on Ebay misidentified due to the seller seeing the stamp on the chanter, which happens to be a different make than the pipes.

There's a set now on Ebay being sold as being made by L&M Highland Outfitters, Nova Scotia! The joke is that L&M made leather pipe bags, not pipes. But the seller saw the L&M stamp on the bag.

About ivory yes President Obama issued an Executive Order around two years ago banning the possession of any ivory worked or unworked. Any ivory-mounted set is subject to seizure by the Department of Fish & Game. To make an ivory-mounted set of pipes legal is complicated and requires the pipes having a provable provenance. The ivory must be provably gathered "from the wild" prior to a certain date, been within the USA by a certain date, and not bought or sold after the date of the Executive Order. Because I couldn't prove that my pipes had been in the USA by the date specified they were impossible to legalise though they had obviously been made before 1908. So I sold them and bought a new non-ivory set.

About counting the number of rings on the combing, Jeannie Campbell in Highland Bagpipe Makers has this to say:

"Recognition of makers can be a problem as many instruments do not bear the name of the maker. Patterns changed according to different turners within the same firm and turners might transfer to another firm and continue to make the same patterns, as they would take their tools with them. A turner can usually identify his own work and distinguish it from the work of other turners within the same firm. There are several known instances of a turner working for one firm during the day and working unofficially for another firm in the evenings...

Making measurements or counting the rings on the combing only serves to prove that makers changed their designs."

Now the quality of the combing is another matter as you point out. Good craftsmen do good clean combing. They have a special tool for doing it (it cuts all the combs at the same time) and the tool has to be kept sharp.

Here's a video showing a Scottish pipemaker doing the combing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03gQFjSCwxU

Ironic that the music is the Irish uilleann pipes, which have no such combing.

[KD Burke]

One of the gentlemen who had been gifted a set of pipes of Sialkot origin allowed me to examine and experiment with them for a few days.

I found it instructive.

I started by removing the chanter and drones and plugging the stocks with rubber stoppers. I then inflated the bag to check for air-tightness. When I did so I heard a hissing sound which increased with pressure in the bag.....obviously very leaky and not an auspicious start, but not necessarily irrecoverable.

A more serious issue was that with both tenor drones set to the same point on the tuning pins, and using the same, known to be good, reed, the two tenors produced markedly different tones with one perceptibly sharper than the other and both sharper than would be expected from the reed and tuning pin combination. It would have been a long, difficult chore of reed manipulation to simply get them to tune together. Since neither of the tones that they produced was particularly pleasant, I chose to forego further experimentation.

[OC Richard]

What about the bass drone? Oftentimes those are impossible to get going. A guy bought a Pakistani set in and we tried every sort of reed and adjustment and all we could ever get was squeals.

And as you say even when you get them going it's not worth the effort.

And the chanters! Wow. Usually they're super flat, around A, and sound horrible. More squeals are likely.

However there are Pakistani pipes which will play. There's a firm named Hakim Din which makes drones that work OK and produce a tone more or less equivalent to the worst Scottish-made sets. The chanters are still useless.

Here's a review of a Hakim Din set by Shawn Husk, a good piper and reedmaker who knows his business

http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/...d.php?t=122694

The typical cheap Pakistani pipes do come with distinctive bags, bag-covers, and cords, which help give a quick ID, but it sometimes happens that a previous owner had switched these out for legit ones. The wood parts themselves are easy to ID anyhow.

[416 Rigby]

I have a pal who plays a set of 1920's Robertson's, and the drones sound spectacular, rich and full of bass. Through recent genealogy research, it turns out he's related to the man who made his pipes. How cool is that?!