Wood


Wood is the main component from which gaitas are created. The most valued for Galician gaitas are:

	Lignum Vitae	Cocobolo	Boxwood	Granadilla
Botanic name	Dalbergia nigra Fr. Allem.	Dalbergia granadillo Pitt.	Buxus Sempervirens L.	Dalbergia melanoxylon Guill. Et Perr
Density	800-900 Kg/m3	990-1.250 Kg/m3	900-1030 Kg/m3	1.250 Kg/m3
Hardness	Hard	Very hard	Very hard	Very hard
Colour	Chocolate - Brown with a touch of violet	Reddish brown	Pale yellow	Dark brown and purple with black streaks

The choice of wood will depend upon the tastes of each bagpiper, but it should be noted that some are more sensitive to severe changes in temperature and humidity than others. Boxwood, the most sensitive, is not recommended for areas where the climate suffers extreme temperatures.

Something else to consider when choosing the wood, is the colour of sound that it will give to the instrument. Boxwood is well liked by soloists due to its sweetness and harmonious richness. It is the native wood which has been used the most to make traditional gaitas in Galicia.

The scarceness of boxwood and the anxiety to find new colourful sounds, has led to craftsmen looking for noble exotic woods such as Cocobolo, Lignum Vitae or Granadilla. The Granadilla wood, specifically, demonstrates a greater tolerance to temperature and humidity changes and adds a powerful and crystal clear type of sound.

Ring caps


In order to produce the ring caps, several different materials are used: black or ivory imitation methacrylate, brass, alpaca, the new Seinox, silver and even wood which contrasts with the wood of the instrument.

Even though old gaitas did not feature ring caps –something that forced them to be more robust– the modern technique of adding ring caps has the purpose of protecting the ‘female’ parts of the gaita from any possible fractures caused by the pressure in the corks. The same occurs at the bottom of the chanter and the cup in the three drones, which are also protected from possible indentations due to unfortunate knocks or movement in the wood.

In addition to their main function of protection, the ring caps also play an important part in distinctive and personalised decoration. At the Obradoiro de Gaitas Seivane, we offer bagpipers the opportunity to engrave the ring caps with various designs, including their own, as well as a name or memento. Gaitas are still made, by request, without any ring caps, in the style of old gaitas.

The innovations introduced by Seivane with regards to the treatment of metals used for the ring caps in gaitas deserve a separate mention. Embossing with lathes, an art normally practised by the finest goldsmiths, was added to our manufacturing process therefore achieving a perfect finish to the wood, as well as elegant and aesthetic patterns, by pressing the ring cups tightly in place, adding indentations and creating semi circle arcs that fit into a canal on the wood, ensuring the ring caps stay in place.

Next a brief description on the materials most used to make gaita rings at Seivane's:

•	Methacrylate is a polymer is that has a expansion rate very similar to wood. This feature, combined with its shine and resistance to the elements and grating, makes it a very good modern material for making rings for gaitas.
•	Alpaca is an alloy composed of zinc, copper and nickel. Its colour and brightness make it very similar silver. Due to nickel it is quite resistant to corrosive media.
•	Silver is a precious metal weak and white. To make it harder, usually it is alloyed with copper in a proportion of  93%. When polished, it gets a typical very high shine.
•	Brass, also called metal, is an alloy of copper and zinc. It is yellow.
•	Seinox is a Seivane's exclusive alloy with a high hardness, toughness and corrosion resistance. It is also rust free so it remains unchanged for years. This feature makes it very good for manufacturing rings for gaitas. Seinox rings are not soldered.

Dress


Three different designs can be chosen for the cover or dress. The normal cover, the double cover and the embroidered cover. Velvet and high quality embroideries in a wide range of colours are used for the production of the dresses. It is possible to combine any colour, both in the covers as in the cords.

The manufacturing process begins with the felling of trees. By tradition and through empirical study, it is proven that the best periods for tree felling are between the fourth lunar waning in January and the fourth lunar waning in August. In both cases, the circulation of sap is minimal, thus its removal will be easier and quicker. If this sap remains in the wood too long, it creates what we call ‘withered’ wood, without life. The idea is to achieve a perfect drying of the wood whilst keeping it alive.

Once the tree is cut down, the branches are left on for a further fifteen days in order to remove as much sap as possible. After chopping them, the trunks are cut into 50-60cm pieces and they are sawn off longitudinally in half and quarter pieces. These cuts allow the wood to lose tension and relax, whilst also avoiding the typical cracks that appear in the latter periods of drying.


A long series of treatment phases begin thereafter which will largely determine the final quality of the wood. It enters the drying room and it is appropriately stacked so that air can flow freely between the blocks of wood. After a year, the wood is inspected and sawn to remove knots and impurities, leaving it to rest once more until the drying process has finished, which takes around ten years.

Once this time elapses, the moment arrives for the blocks to be sawn again, with the help of the intuition and experience of the craftsman, as well as classifying it in order of dimensions, stability, straightness of the grains, aesthetic appearance, colour, grains, fibres, homogeneity, etc. and designate each piece to a predetermined part of the gaita.


The next step consists of giving the wood a round shape in the lathe (i.e. it is cylindered) and its placement in the Wood Storage Area. Slowly, several operations are carried out in the workshop, such as drilling and polishing which must be done slowly and progressively to avoid strong physical contact so that the molecular fibres are not broken and thus allowing the wood to reach its ultimate stability level. It can take over five years for the various processes in the workshop and the rest intervals to take place.

In this way, an instrument with an excellent quality of sound and with few future physical changes is obtained.