Whorfin Whistles
Charlie Tarrio has been making whistles as Whorfin Woods for about twenty years. He began on a metalworking lathe and now does most of the work on a woodworking lathe with chisels and gouges. The designs are loosely based on those of Glenn Schultz and Chris Abell, with influences from Phil Bleazey, Jon Swayne and Michael Grinter, and a few touches of his own. What he is after is a traditional whistle sound, pure with a touch of chiff and woodiness and not too much sweetness, balanced across both octaves in volume and in ease of play.
Reserved for us
Charlie reserves his best whistles for Irish Flute Store.
The whistles
Charlie works in a wide range of hardwoods. Rosewoods and boxwood sit alongside tropical woods and domestic ones such as Osage orange, dogwood and cherry, some of it harvested from trees that came down in his own yard or in the yards of friends and family.
The whistles carry brass tuning slides, with fittings in brass or aluminum. The B♭ and A are close enough in pitch that they are built as sets, one head with two bodies.
