Clarke Pennywhistle Boxed D Whistle

I taught myself to play recorder at an early age (12) and played in group with adults playing good recorders (theirs were of wood, mine was plastic). I also now play the Boehm flute (silver flute). I also bought from Amazon another brand of tin whistle. The Clarke Original (painted black) is the real deal. I had trouble adjusting to the cedar block in my mouth. Recorder wood is finished and leaves no taste. The unfinished cedar has a strange taste, but I'm used to it now. I do not consider it a deal breaker. The instrument is conical - wide at the top (where the block is) and narrower at the bottom. This is similar to the bore of recorder & unlike the Boehm flute which is cylindrical. I believe baroque fultes also had a conical bore. There is a seam at the back of the Clarke. Cylindrical whistles have a seamless ture. I recall reading that the Boehm flute "caught on" in France & the rest of Europe didn't much care for it. Some of the early French makers used a seamed tube for their early product line because it was cheaper that a seamless tube. I think the reason it is a feature of the Clarke design is that it is easer and cheaper to create a folded and seamed cone than one that has no seam. Again, I do not find this to be a deal breaker. I adjust. The tin whistle is classed as a duct flute. The block is used to create a narrow windway tdirected at the lip which will vibrate in the stream of air the player controls. As with wind instruments generally, the player is the most important element in tone production. I had to learn to reduce the wind stream. I try to control it so I get a pure tone. The tone is the result of the air volume within the flute itself. There is a magic moment when you are playing and the sweet and pure sound of the note comes through. I had to learn not to push the note. The upper octave dpends on a stronger pressue of air than the first octave. I still cannot get the full effect I want above high g. I need to practice more. But I can do so much more with the Boehm flute so much more easily that I find myself drifting in that direction rather than working of the more delicate sound of the Irish tin whistle. Also, from my long history (over 70 years) of recorder playing, I find it easy just to play one of my plastic Alto or Soprano recorders. However, tin whistle is fascinating in its own right. I found out about tin whistle jive, a 1950's influence on African music. Even Harry Belafonte has a song about it that used tin whistle - Kwela. Amazon music has it & so does YouTube. YouTube has a great video of tin whistle players on a street in South Africa. It changed my image of tin whistle music forever.