Hi everyone,

tiny, tough, reliable, loud, form follows function, top quality. Sounds simple, but after looking for a long time without finding a whistle like that anywhere, I'm now making it myself.

It took quite some effort and time particularly to squeeze a noise output out of this small package that is loud enough for an emergency whistle - but prototyping is now finished, and the first and possibly only run is going to happen in February! The batch size is not locked down yet, and I'd be happy if anyone interested would join in.

Early Bird pricing for all orders that are placed and paid by 27th of January!


WHAT IT IS:

Titanium emergency whistle, 40mm long, 7.5 mm diameter, all edges nicely rounded, bead blasted satin matte surface finish.

Form follows function. Very loud. Very small. Ergonomic. Easy to use.

A bullet proof concept, thorough design and top quality manufacturing combined in one very satisfying piece of equipment.

The internal reed is made from the same piece of titanium as the body. It can never fall out and get lost, a scenario that has happened to me and others with whistles that have an insert - and is usually only discovered when you need to use the whistle.

The rear plug is fitted with a tight press fit that won't move. As it is a separate part and could theoretically be lost, it is additionally secured by the key ring that goes through both body and plug.

No corrosion. No allergies. No colouring. No plastic to go brittle and break in the cold, in the sun or over time. No unnecessary bulk, no unnecessary weight, no unnecessary anything. 100% pure whistle.

Made locally in New Zealand by skilled people who I am in constant close contact with to achieve a top quality result; and who also get paid a fair salary, allowing me to sleep easy at night.


INFO RE PICTURES:

As I wanted to get the best possible use out of all prototypes, I have used up every single one that I had by doing additional machining, surface finishing and other tests with them, so unfortunately I don’t have any finished ones left.

I do have some early aluminium prototypes left that were used for functional geometry and accoustics testing, please see photos. They show the design, but please bear in mind that the finished product is a completely different world regarding the material titanium as well as quality in all aspects from surface precision and rounded edges to blasted finish and lots of other things!

The 3D models show the final design; the most obvious visual difference is probably the rounded exhaust port.


PRICING

There are two general options:

=> NORMAL:
- 95 USD
- Order and payment due by 6th February 2009
- I’ll try my best to include you in the first batch, but I can’t guarantee it

=> EARLY BIRD:
- 85 USD
- order and payment due by 27th January 2009
- you are guaranteed to be included in the first batch
- early bird lottery: one in ten whistles will be half price

=> Additionally for both Early Bird and Normal scheme:
- free shipping and packaging for any order of two or more whistles
- an additional discount of 10% for any order of three or more whistles.


SHIPPING AND PACKAGING

For one whistle, insured shipping to most places in the world is 10.00 USD. For more than one whistle, shipping is free. Shipping times will usually be from 4 to 12 working days. Packaging is included in this. Tracking is available at an extra cost of 6.00 USD.


HOW TO ORDER

A: Please let me know preferably via email to matthiasDOTthiesATgmxDOTnet or PM:

- how many whistles you want
- your first and last name
- your shipping address
- a contact phone number (optional, but recommended)
- your Pay Pal name (so I can identify your payment)
- whether you want tracking or not
- and the total amount of your order

B: Then transfer the amount through pay pal to: matthiasDOTthiesATgmxDOTnet

For those without a Pay Pal account: Credit card payments should be possible through Pay Pal as well; if you need information on this, please let me know.

If you order under the Early Bird scheme, please transfer the full Early Bird amount - if you are drawn in the lottery I will simply refund the according amount. The lottery will happen once all Early Bird orders are in; it will be based on something random like e.g. the stock exchange or similar.

By the way and for peace of mind: I will not touch any of the transferred money until I have the finished batch of whistles in front of me and have quality checked every single one. I am very aware of the trust that you are putting in me, I appreciate it very much, and I will not disappoint you.


FINALLY

If I should have overlooked something here, let me know – I’m sure we can sort it out. Any questions - just ask!

Thank you very much for your interest!

Cheers,

Matt

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

Edited by liquidsunshine on 01/20/2009 06:08:41 MST.

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.

Edited by joshcgil2 on 01/20/2009 15:03:15 MST.

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.