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Contact Information
In writing please to:
Davy Stephenson
18 Bridge Terrace
Richmond
North Yorkshire
DL10 4RQ
United Kingdom.
E-mail us at: uilleann@hotmail.co.uk
Pipe Making Courses For 2008-9
This years next student is Steffen Gabriel from Germany.
2007 Students Jim and Makoto with their work
Davy began life as a motorcycle engineer in 1977, which stood him in good stead using modern machinery, having mastered
this art he wanted to take things back a peg or two and go right back to basics, just as the old makers were doing it
only then would he fully understand and realise what it took to make a set of pipes by hand.
Ten years later he met up with his now best friend Mr J S Wass, a professional wood turner of over thirty years, where
he learned all about the art of selecting wood and turning, and at the same time the art of pipe making and
struggling to come to terms with many older designs he then met up with renowned Uilleann pipe maker
Peter Hunter of Yorkshire England, he has been making bagpipes of many different kinds, including
NSP, SSP, Border and now Uilleann pipes professionally for over ten years, which is now his sole instrument
of manufacture, to date made over 1454 items and over 280 different chanters.
The Stephenson family comes from a long line of engineers and musicians, who are related to the famous north eastern
engineers, Davy's wife's family originate from Neenah, Co Tipperary, known as the Minnitt's.
Davy's heart lies in the traditional way of making things with the very best of materials, which include many recycled
materials as described in some of his pictures, in exactly the same ways as the old masters using the minimum of
equipment, his sets have been said to resemble the looks of the older instruments with the best of
modern tuning brought about with dimensions from the famous Hunter stable.
Davy's first fully time student Makoto Nakatsui of Japan, an outstanding self taught player came to him with no
prior knowledge of making anything, yet at the end of his six months with Davy, he had achieve what many
other makers had in over five years or more, a bold statement maybe, but let his work speak for itself in
See the full story in Makoto's Journey
Other students include, David Boisvert, Martin Crossin, Jim Carroll, Ales Asenburger, Mike Cahill
and several other students from Germany, France, Ireland, Canada and the USA who are due in the next 2 years.
From this a clear pattern has emerged, each student has differing amounts of practical skills, if you
are an improver in the woodworking or engineering fields then you will have a advantage, a typical weekend
would involve the making of a practice set, the drawings and the tools that go with it.
Longer courses are needed to make half and full sets, ranging from six weeks for a half set and several
months, We can accommodate a single person, preferably a non smoker for up to six months
which is ample time to learn everything needed.
Six month courses are really designed for those wishing to gain enough knowledge to start them on their way to becoming
a fully fledged maker, at the end of this course you will have learned to copy/measure and make an existing instrument, make
all the tooling needed, and have made a full set which many of the old makers would have be proud of.
For further information, please Contact Us.
We are now starting to concentrate on using quality second hand, sustainable and native wind blown timbers in all
our products, we can trace our Holly, Laburnum, Apple and many other native fruitwood instruments right back to
where they grew, I truly believe that we all have a responsibility towards the planet and using such timbers is a
responsible way in which to contribute towards it.
Native Holly, Laburnum, Apple and other species air drying prior to instrument area selection
Leaving the timber open to the elements like this, prevents the timber from drying out too
fast and the ends from severe splitting
Exotic timbers are dwindling very fast, which are either lost forever or now on the endangered list, We have
been collecting and converting these alternative timbers for many years now, see above, and are fully set for making
instruments from this stock when the other exotic timbers are exhausted.
Many of our native fruit woods have very good tonal qualities and should
not be dismissed because they are not
dark in colour, timbers like Apple, Holly, Plumb and Pear have similar tonal colours to the likes of ebony and can be
manipulated to work just as well as any of the exotics.
Our ferrules are all hand rolled, which also helps to save on resources, making them from one source of flat sheet saves a
huge amount of cost and energy compared to stocking the many different types and sizes of tube one would
need, it also gives the freedom to choose the size and final shape of every ferrule used on any set of pipes.
Where possible our bellows are also made from alternatives such as old furniture, reclaimed timbers and our own converted
stocks, we have made this possible by making our very own milling equipment to convert timbers that have been
wind blown, which would have been left on the ground to rot, to see these machines click here if we all do our
part it will help towards saving our planets valuable resources.
A typical first lesson would involve learning how the different stages of manufacture are applied, to making the
many tools, reamers and jigs, followed by the making of hand stitched bags and bellows, right down
to rolling your own metalwork and one of the most important things of all the Reed making.
All my knowledge is free, tooling and materials are supplied by us, all we require in return is reimbursing for
any materials used, for more details please contact us.
The Workshop where we build things as in the days of old
My main workshop machinery consisting of a band saw, a home made wood turning lathe, which I built
many years ago using old metalwork lathe parts, My other lathe seen here is a Union Graduate wood turning
lathe commonly known as the Rolls Royce of lathes in Great Britain which many modern pipe makers use today.
I have been a professional wood turner for over twenty years now, all my outer work is done freehand as
I am very comfortable doing it that way as were many of the old time pipe makers.
Many have said that the old makers would have used better machinery if it was available to them, this is not actually
the case, Coyne, Kenna and others actually used a treadle a wood turning lathe, the older metal lathes of their day were
pretty slow and cumbersome to say the least, there were high quality ornamental lathes available by makers such as
Holzapffel, pictured below which were the CNC machines of their day, but these were normally out of the reach of any
normal person, below is an early example of a turning engine which some of the old makers may have had access.
Modern metal lathes are very good for the drilling stages and making a range of special tooling, I do use my
ML7 for a limited number of tasks but a metalwork lathe will never be able to give one the freedom and
expression needed to obtain the flowing curves needed on the ornamental parts of a set of pipes.
I do use my woodwork lathes for many metal parts in brass and nickel using metal finishing techniques
to see some click here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDXHJOdnCwQ
I suppose it comes down to the skill of the individual, the more creative one is the less tooling is
needed to do the tasks, what you see in my workshop picture is what I use.