SOLD – This unusual Henderson set came to me with Sterling silver slides hallmarked PH 1910. The pipes are ebony.  All pieces are original except for the blowpipe, which is a Lawrie, and a good match for the set.

In typical fashion for ebony, the pipes had some minor hairline cracking under the ferrules. These are not officially “cracks”, but they can become cracks, so we invisible whip all of these under the ferrules.

One tenor drone was tuning quite low and had a problematic double tone. After careful measurements by Rick Pettigrew at Dunbar Bagpipes, it was determined the tuning chamber in the tenor top was slightly larger than optimal — perhaps a previous refurb had over-bored the joint in an effort to even out the tuning chamber. A blackwood sleeve was made and installed into that bore to make it identical to the other tenor.

The finished pipes played absolutely beautifully with my Kinnaird Edge drone reeds. They locked into tune immediately and displayed the classic rich, seamless and robust sound you would expect from an old Henderson set in ebony. Quite remarkable steadiness, and great blend with the chanter, and superb work by Dunbar Bagpipes.