Take my word for it, carving a whistle from elder is an empowering activity, one that traces the handiwork of our ancestors and resounds in you long after the note has disappeared into the autumn air.

THURMONT, Md. (AP) -- Joe Stebbing started out carving wood the old-fashioned way. With chisels and a mallet. Trouble was, it took about three months to make a single carving. Stebbing, a plumber by ...

Ask Orange County Fair exhibitor Richard Hodgin what he’s making and he responds with a whistle. Then he grabs another, bigger whistle. That one has a small piece fit into its tube, which, when pulled ...