Metalwork

I mostly work with brass and sterling silver. For my smallpipes the metalwork involved is mostly ferrules which I machine from extruded tube. There is a lot of metalwork on a set of uilleann pipes (ferrules, bends, keys, posts etc) involving quite a number of processes including machining, silver soldering, bending and threading.

All the silver on my pipes is 925 purity sterling silver. It is hall-marked at the Edinburgh Assay Office with my maker's mark ("IK") included within the full Edinburgh hallmark.

For the past 25 years all engraving has been done by hand by Perthshire-based master-craftsman, Martin Collins.

Examples of bespoke hand-engraving

A selection of keywork

Some of the metalwork processes