This lovely cocuswood Henderson came to me with the ivory mounts badly chipped and broken, though the sticks were in fine shape. Profiles and mount shapes suggested a date of manufacture as early as the 1890s.

I had the damaged ivory replaced with Dunbar Bagpipes non-chip artificial ivory. The blowstick stock and chanter stock were cracked and required some invisible whipping. The blowstick was broken beyond repair and was replaced with a poly-lined blackwood blowstick.

Some readers might be familiar with the late John Kidd, an American whose knowledge of acoustics and skill at wooodworking led to his being in demand by pipers to make adjustments to their pipes to improve their tone and steadiness. John rounded out the ends of the tuning pins, rebored the stocks to a conical shape and made all bores perfectly parallel from the top to the bottom of each drone. His clients have included some top players who swear by his work. John’s touch is evident on this set.

The pipes display classic, bold Henderson tone and steadiness, suitable for pipers from the bottom to the top of the tree. I’m a big fan of cocuswood. Both of my personal Henderson sets are made of it.

This would make an ideal top-drawer travel set.