Titanium Whistle – tiny, loud, no reed to loose

My friend, not to rain on your parade but I see many things wrong here so I will say them with utmost respect. First of all, this is your first post and it appears to be a heavy advertising ploy. I welcome you and hope you will stay within this community. Secondly and most importantly, I think you have a typo on the price because $95 USD for a whistle makes me feel like you mind as well point a gun to my head and demand money (unless I'm ignorant and there's something I'm not getting here). For all I know, REI sells whistles in small and large sizes for $3.50 and $4.50 respectively. They are constructed of aluminum and the weight difference between that and titanium for such a small object is negligible. You have my thoughts and you are also welcome to convince me to think otherwise.

Hi Jeff,

absolutely no offense taken – maybe I should have given a bit of the background story as well.

As you realise, this is quite obviously not a product for everyone, and I am fully aware of this. This whistle is neither designed nor manufactured to meet a certain price, only to achieve maximum quality for those who enjoy this sort of product as much as I do myself, and I don't intend to sell thousands of it.

To be honest, if I could have bought this whistle, I'd gladly have done that without thinking twice – except no one made one like this, and as I really wanted one myself, I decided to go the long way and make it.

As to the price tag: Make any of the dirt cheap whistles without an insert, but with the internal reed made from the same piece as the body, and you increase the price multiple times due to the cost of the involved tricky machining processes and special machines. Use titanium, add the according increase in material cost. And because titanium is much (!!) more demanding regarding tool wear and machining time than aluminum or brass, that increases the price significantly again. Even though this is something that most people are not used to thinking about anymore, paying people a fair salary also adds to the price of a product. Etc. etc. So basically if you take a whistle for a few dollars and add the cost of all the things in which mine differs from that one, you will see that you indeed do arrive at a price tag that is more or less what mine will cost.

To give you a different perspective on the pricing: Other makers of very high quality items have successfully introduced and sold whistles before which were priced much higher than this one. Anyone who is interested in whistles will know the guys I am talking of – they dared to make truly exceptional whistles which sold out a long time ago and are now very sought after and only occasionally available second hand at up to twice the original retail price. Why? Because their owners love them and rarely part with them.

You might not be aware of the maths and financial realities of manufacturing products, particularly high quality products. The thing is that, including the prototyping during development – to achieve things like high loudness output in a small package etc. – for just a little bit more than the cost of making a one-off, I can make several. If I make a small handfull, they become even cheaper per piece; and if I make a few dozen or more, cheaper again. This is the reason why I am looking for like minded people who may want one as well – it would make sense for everyone, and it somehow doesn't make sense to do all this development and then only make one or two.

Now whether the features that my concept and design offers above other available models are worth this price is completely up to you to decide for yourself, of course. There are people like me who enjoy these extras every day they carry and use the whistle so much that for them, this question is as easy to answer as it may be for you – you may find it unthinkable for yourself, and that's fine; they get so much enjoyment out of it for a very long time that it's a far better deal for them than a ticket to the movies. Now I'm not judging either opinion; I'm just trying to find those people who would enjoy it as much as I do. I have found quite a few already, and for a while longer I'll be looking around some more before I give the green light to make the whistles.

You are right, this is my first post in this forum. This idea was first born in talking with some friends, and then grew in discussion with some people over at edcforums.com where I have been active for quite some time. Most people who have signed up so far come from there. I am hoping to find some more like minded people in other places on the internet as well, and I am trying to do so before the Early Bird deadline is up which has been extended due to demand, but can't be delayed much further because everyone on the list is eagerly awaiting their whistles. I can't see the crime in that.

All respect, but calling my offer a "ploy" is a bit far fetched. Just because something is done well does not mean it's a commercial exploit of other people. I happen to be an engineer, I have decided to do this myself because it's not available anywhere, and I take pride in doing it right. Of course I am "making money" by selling a few of these whistles in the end, but if you would know the hours that I have put into this and do the maths, you would quickly see that if my aim was earning money, I'd be better off taking about most other jobs that I can possibly think of.

I hope I have explained a bit more of the background of this project. I'm not "pointing a gun at your head demanding money". Not everything that is not for you is automatically a bad thing. People are different, that's just how it is…

Cheers,

Matt

How many decibels? My $4 Acme Tornado from England is supposed to be the loudest pea-less whistle. Oh yeah 0.1 ounce also. Good luck with your whistle. A fool and his money are soon parted.

I love titanium, just not this much. If the price was $8.50 – $9.50 I would have ordered a couple already.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…with total disregard for original poster.

I'm sure this has been discussed ad nauseum in another post but it always makes me laugh when Ti is promoted over Al in non-strength critical applications.

Density of Ti: 4.54 g/cc
Density of Al: 2.70 g/cc

In other words given the same volume of material aluminum is significantly lighter than titanium. Titanium is MUCH stronger, however so in structural applications like bikes or cook pots you can get away with a lot less material for the same strength and stiffness. As a result the finished product is lighter.

In this example the whistle will be roughly 2x the weight of its aluminum equivalent and somewhere in the range of 30x more expensive.

I also see something wrong here, but I'll say it with dripping sarcasm.

>"Additionally for both the Early Bird and Normal scheme:"

"Scheme" seems like the right word here.

My Daughter bought me a 2 pack of Fox 40 Micro's for Christmas. Their loud…….

Matthias, take a hike, dude. And take your little whistle with you.

Geez, everyone relax. If you don't want to buy one, don't, but I don't think there is any need for all this vitriol directed at the poster.

Remember how Roger is always saying he couldn't retail his tents for a reasonable price? This is more of the same I think; high production costs coupled with low demand, I doubt it is a scam.

play nice now.

Josh make note this is the OP's FIRST post…he deserves to be pummeled…. really….and I am nice in general. It's a waste of space.

Hmm, good point.

I just remember there was a new member once whose first post sounded like an add for insect repellent, and we all came down pretty hard on her as a spammer, turned out she wasn't, I felt bad and resolved to be nicer to first timers (unless they are like that shoe guy-jerk)

I've been in Seattle too long, David's NYC frankness just struck me as unnecessary roughness (funny though)

Edit: I just noticed "no reed to loose"? maybe "lose"? unless there is a problem with reed loosness, or possible loss of dazzle.

Serioulsy though, I don't know what all you guys are complaining about. This whistle is awesome – a total deal at only 100 times the price of any regular whistle and to top it off, it's heavier then most other whistles…Sweet!…I bought two of them. They fit perfect in each of my nostrils while I hike. :)

Dang! My bad, it is obviously a dazzle issue. I can't believe I missed it ;)

Wait, this whistle comes with dazzle? That could change everything and explains the price. Keeping the dazzle on / in with all those holes can be quite a trick.

What I really need is a titanium compass. Or a titanium toothbrush (with nylon bristles, not titanium–don't be silly!). Or a titanium flashlight. Or a titanium compass with a built-in titanium toothbrush and titanium flashlight. I haven't decided which I need more yet, so please help me decide…

Actually, I've been thinking of replacing some of my heavier body parts with titanium. What does the average human brain weigh? About three pounds or so I think. Imagine the advantages of a titanium brain swap. For starters it'd be easier to convince myself to lighten my wallet by buying ridiculous whistles.

Dang! OP is not set up for PMs How will I place an order? Especially if Dazzle is involved. Valentines is coming! Maybe a price break for bulk.

Simon,

Is this Einstein from the old days.

Titanium toothbrush with nylon bristles, that gives me an idea. How many bristles do you think it will take? Got to keep it light so we don't have to cut the handle in half.

For the TI flashlight just put threads on each end of the whistle so you can put a battery in it and a LED on the other end. Then when you need to blow the whistle all you have to do is unscrew both ends and remove the battery and LED. Then blow the whistle. Lets see, how fast do Bears run? A Titanium LED might not be that hard to make.

A Titanium compass might not be that hard. I will have to think about that one also.

Stay tuned.

Hi everyone,

everyone who has contacted me: Thanks for your requests, I'll be catching up with replying over the next few days.

Re the preceding flaming: I'll save my time for better things than engaging with a certain type of poster here, I'm sure you can entertain each other.

Have a good day!

Cheers,

Matt

Someone contacted you? Really….HAHAHAHAHAHA…Roger help…can you move this to Chaff….hahahaha…he's killing me!

I just hope future innovators don't meet such criticism. To manufacture something from scratch with the level of quality described in that whistle the costs seem very reasonable. I would imagine that the cost of research and development for items like event or gortex would seem astronomical at first but not come down before the market was able to use it. I know of people who have paid over $500 for a knife, something that construction is much easier. Get past the fact that it is a whistle and you will see that getting the best of something is going to be expensive. Again I know of people who have spent hundreds upon hundreds on a pair of cufflinks or the like. I would imagine that for the next hundred years if it doesn't fall victim to rust it would still work as new, not something you can say of any of the plastic whistles around. Please don't abandon the idea of producing things at this level, who knows treasure you may bring out at some point in the future. The cost of a one off of those carbon ice axes would put thier cost over $1000 I would have to imagine. If 10,000 people bought them however the cost would come down quite a bit.

It is the incoherency and inconsistency to other "whistles". I am pretty certain that if it gets sent to BP gear test, it would not significantly outlast say, an anodized aluminum whistle. In the event that it does, the cost of the replacement of the aluminum whistle is merely a couple dollars. If you were to look elsewhere for titanium whistles, you will find that they have been made. And alike this product, it is very high quality, "reedless", and probably a third of the price. Products such as gortex and quality knives require research that is much more intensive due to the sheer innovation. Again, I am not attacking the OP personally as an individual but as a producer in whole without much rational thought or knowledge relative to pricing and demand. I am astounded that he pursued production of this product at such tremendous costs of production without even thinking about the losses. Could it be that there is really a customer base so large that it covers the costs of production (if the costs of production is great)? Or could it be that words are merely words until we realize with rational thinking that deception is common over the internet?

If I had 95 bucks to spend on a whistle then I would have a sherpa carrying it