Re-visiting this thread is like returning to a car crash. You know you shouldn't, but you can't resist it...
I'll stick to concertinas.
Conrad. Do you have any idea of the myriad of skills needed to make a fine musical instrument?
How to make a reed from a sheet of steel?
How to forge the frames into which these reeds fit?
How to use rare and expensive woods as the veneer?
How to do the delicate tracery on the ends?(Very difficult)
How to select and treat the leather needed to make the bellows?
Not forgetting a trained musical ear to tune the instrument after having built it.
You ask, Nay demand, that these two instrument makers take on apprentices.
Well. Two problems there.
Firstly. Nobody wants to put in the decades (and I mean decades) of work needed to learn all the necessary skills needed to do it.
Secondly. Even if someone did, the makers would have to give up making the few commissions they have on their order books.
Steve Dickinson started many years ago working at the original Wheatstone shop,as a part time job.
He went on to own the factory (ie. Himself!)
I have been privelidged to have spent many hours in the company of Mssrs Dickinson and Dipper.
I've always come away shaking my head at the enormity of the artistry and technical brilliance of these guys.
Not to mention the years of dedication they have put in to learning their skills.
And you have the temerity to turn up with a 10 cent tin whistle and pontificate about how music should be performed?
Words fail me.