Cillian Ó'Briain uilleann pipes Chanter Reed making 

Hi Cirrian, Thank you for the comments , the cord used for tying up the Reed is Waxed Polymide and is available from the NPU Dublin website shop , it costs around €14:30 per roll , its great to get a good seal up along the reed & is very strong & gets a good grip.

Hi Cirrian , NPU Dublin used to have this waxed polyamide in stock.

Hi Darren, the tip is cut just to even up the lips , I also cut the edges off the tip as I think it tends to free up the lips a bit ,cutting the lips also shortens the head and affects the back D a lot .

Hi Matthew , the wrapping material is waxed polyamide , it can be bought in rolls and gives the binding a good air tight seal.

What I've used for years in the US is a waxed "artificial sinew" which is some sort of brown colored poly material in a ribbon format, sold by leather and archery vendors in my experience. It has 3-5 plys that can be pulled apart into individual strands, which I use for wrapping the bottom of the staple and for temporary binding of the blades. The ribbon requires fewer turns than a round thread needs and it naturally seals airtight.

@@Dayepipes Thanks for replying! It's awesome to hear from you! I wound up getting the same advice from Kirk Lynch, who made my pipes. With the help of Kirk, a few videos on RU-vid, and David Quinn's book, I'm pleased to say that I successfully made 2 playable reeds last winter out of six attempts. One is actually my favorite of the 4 playable reeds I have.

Wonderful! As a piper, you may not need any more than 3 or 4 good reeds over a lifetime. Make a few reeds a year and you can afford to discard 90% of them. I once owned a Lynch chanter and like him, Tim Britton, and the late Patrick Sky, was of the very few worldwide Boomer generation drawn to uilleann piping in its darkest hours. We all started making pipes out of desperation with the difficulties of traditional pipes and reeds coming into our alien North American climate. My innovation was probably the most radical, but it's a new world today for u-pipes, so much sharing, so much talent. I'm not even Irish but it all brings a tear to my eye.