Edible Wood

I'm excited to have found a small supplier of dometic fruitwoods in the US called Thorn Creek, Edible Woods.  All my pear and plum woods have previously come from Europe.  This European wood is specifically harvested and air dried to be used in the production of woodwinds.   I can't complain about it; it's beautiful wonderful stuff, but I've long wanted to find a suitable supplier of quality North American fruitwoods here in the US.

Here are some pictures of domestic pear (on the left) and peach (on the right).  He carries the three woods that I have used to make pipes from: Plum, pear and apple, but he also carries other fruitwoods I have not tried, such as peach, apricot and quince.  I've ordered some plum to test, and also some apricot, which I know is traditionally used for the Armenian Duduk, so it certainly has a history of being used for woodwind production.  Whether the apricot from this source will be suitable for woodwinds, I'll find out when I receive it.  If it is, I plan to make a set of Border pipes for my own use from it. 

One of the biggest, and happiest, surprises I've had since working full time as a pipe maker, is how warm and rich the sound of a fruitwood set of smallpipes is.  I knew fruitwoods would work for border pipes, and they have not let me down.  But the very warm, but still bright tones of the Plum and Pear smallpipes I've made are marvelously eye-opening.  This wood may all be completely unsuitable for quality woodwinds.  I won't know until I get it.  But I'm hopeful, after exchanging a few emails with him, that I may soon have a domestic source for well treated and well cured domestic fruitwoods.

 "Pond cured" Apricot.