Hakam Din pipes [Archive] - Bagpiper Forums

pipinghotpiper

06-30-2009, 03:02 AM

Hi all,

has anyone ever bought Hakam Din pipes, particularly the J-14 Military Style? I don't want a lot of 'all Paki pipes are crap replies'. I just want an honest opinion from people who have actually bought from this vendor and used their pipes. Thanks!

Max...

Hi. A friend of mine had a set of hakamdins "african blackwood" pipes in full nickel engraved. He brought them round to me all excited and asked if i would set them up for him. This was an impossible and fruitless task. They are still making a woefully poor instrument even though there turning on this set was realy quite good. For a start they were no african blackwood as we would know it IE " Mapingo" but it was a good quality ebony. Ebony has a tendency to split and crack through the years especialy if the timber has not been bored and left for some time. There was no bell in the the top section of the drones and the bore sizes were not compatable to each other. Spent a good 10 hours on these pipes in the workshop as an experiment just to see if i could get them to play at all. I had to turn all the mounts off and this took some time. I thenhad to bore out the mid section of the base as the pin was far to thin and put in a complete pin replacement. I bore it all the way through to the tuning chamber and then rebore the tuning bore so there is never a step in the bore. All btm sections had to be rebored as they were far to small ( 7.5 mm) and this would not allow the air from the drone reed to pass through and caused the drones to keep stopping. I then made some black nylon hemp retainers for the pins and then brass lined the tuning bore to add strength. I have just finished making the imitation ivory projecting mounts today and tomorrow after i have fitted some kitchen work tops i will put slide and ferrule on. The tops of the drones now have a bell copied from a an Old Robertson set and they do sound as if they now have some substance to them. I am looking forward to trying them later through the week when i put a bag on.

The have quite good turnery on some of the sets but the mounts are awfull and the bores are not mathmatecally correct in there stages ? It seems so very odd that a company as big as Hakam din actually is that they dont pursue the developement of the sound sorce and not just the asthetics. With a little more quality control and the use of good seasoned timber they could be a serious contender for the cheaper end of the market with a set that does actualy work. I hope this is of some assistance to you and i will let you know how i get on through the week if you are interested. Take Care, James