Steele, W. J.

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A friend referred me to an Ebay auction in Australia. I saw these pictures and made a mental connection to James Robertson and James Martin. Martin had been the foreman at Robertson’s from the 1940’s until 1958 when he moved to Australia. Martin began making bagpipes under his name and under private branding (see Christies) in 1959. By all accounts he made a very good bagpipe in the tradition of Robertson Bagpipes (Edinburgh).

So back to the subject bagpipe. Yes, I suspected that James Martin had made the instrument and was at a loss regarding the stamp “W J Steele” which appeared on all three drones and on the chanter. A wide lateral search yielded nothing. I tapped into my network of friends and eventually connected with PM Robert Pierce. Robert had written me many years ago regarding Martin which I had completely forgotten.

Robert responded as soon as I contacted him. I was delighted to receive a phone call where he discussed Martin and Steele to some length. It seems that Martin did a complete makeover of his life at some point. The bagpipe business was sold to Steele and Martin was done as a maker. Steele ran the business for a couple of years however the instrument dropped out of favor due to quality issues. Steele closed the business down and disposed of Martin’s lathes and tools at the local dump!

So this brings us to the bagpipe I acquired. The Ebay seller in Australia is a wonderful person and made a gift of the bagpipe to me for the cost of shipping. As soon as I received it is took measurements and otherwise sought to learn more about it. Without question, it has the look of Robertson and Martin. The general workmanship is very good, which leads me to wonder if Martin may have had a direct hand in its making.

The instrument is made of Mulga wood, which is indigenous to Australia and greatly used by Martin. The mounts appear to be casein, very similar to the product that came from the Robertson shop in the later years. The wood had been hidden under a blackening agent that turned out to be purple during removal. The original casein rings have been replaced with Jacaranda wood, possibly because casein does not hold up well against door moldings. One original ring did arrive with the instrument, along with the pro-mount for the blowpipe. Dunbar Bagpipes will replace the Jacaranda wood with a material that best matches the mounts. A blowpipe is also in the works.

The images above were taken from the Ebay listing. Soon after arriving I stripped the bass top section to get a better look at the Mulga wood. The images below are following the stripping and with only a light bore oil applied to the exterior.

The images below are “post restoration”. Wooden rings were replaced with delrin with a new cocobolo blowpipe. The sound is nicely balanced with EZ Drone tenors and an old black Ross synthetic reeds I had kicking around. The sound is a bit soft which is likely a product of the Mulga wood. Overall, it is light on the shoulder and a joy to play. Currently on loan within the band, so I’ll be watching/listening over the next several weeks.