Hand tuned aluminium tubes on a nylon cord, with no finish to flake and nothing to rust.
A cheap chime is thin steel on cotton string: the tubes rust, the string rots in a season and the notes were never tuned in the first place. A good one is tempered aluminium, which cannot rust, cut to lengths that have been tuned to a real scale, hung on UV treated nylon with a hardwood or UHMW striker. The only wearing part is the cord, and on these it is the part the maker expects you to replace. The rest is weather and arithmetic.
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At a glance: Wind Chimes picks compared, with buy links
Inch and a quarter aluminium tubes, hand tuned to the key of C and tested one at a time, hung on UV treated nylon with a machined plastic striker that will not split the way a wooden one eventually does. Aluminium cannot rust, the cord is the only consumable, and this is the highest rated product on the site at the time it was listed.
Between the 27 and the 36, which in practice is the size for a porch that catches real wind: long enough to sound deep, short enough not to swing into the house. Same hand tuned aluminium, nylon cord and machined striker as the rest of the range, made in Virginia.
The middle size, and the one most gardens want: deep enough to carry across a lawn without being the only thing anybody hears. Same hand tuned aluminium, same nylon cord and same striker as the larger one, in a shorter tube set.
The largest of the range, where the tube lengths get low enough that the sound is felt as much as heard. It needs a real hanging point and a garden with room around it, which is the honest caution: this is not a porch chime. Same aluminium, cord and striker as the rest.
A bell rather than a chime, which is a different object: one antiqued copper steel bell, one aluminium windcatcher and an ash clapper, giving a single low note instead of a run of them. Three materials, no mechanism, and forty inches of it.
Six bronze finished aluminium tubes tuned by the company's own musicians to play the opening of Amazing Grace in whatever order the wind takes them, on a teak finished ash hanger. The windcatcher lifts off, which is the one part that takes the weather worst and the one part you can replace.
The small one, for a porch or a balcony where a 36 inch chime would be too much of a presence. Same construction throughout: hand tuned aluminium, nylon cord, machined striker, made in Virginia.
The medium size in the same handmade Texan range, an octave below the soprano, which is the register where a chime stops being decoration and becomes something you hear across a garden. Tempered aluminium alloy that cannot rust, tuned to the same pentatonic scale so the two sizes play together.
Handmade in Texas in tempered aluminium alloy tubing made to the firm's own specification, tuned to the major pentatonic scale, which is the five note scale that cannot produce a sour interval however the wind hits it. Eleven tunings and five sizes are offered and they are built to blend with each other, so a second one bought years later still agrees with the first.
Inch and a quarter aluminium tubes, hand tuned to the key of C and tested one at a time, hung on UV treated nylon with a machined plastic striker that will not split the way a wooden one eventually does. Aluminium cannot rust, the cord is the only consumable, and this is the highest rated product on the site at the time it was listed.
Between the 27 and the 36, which in practice is the size for a porch that catches real wind: long enough to sound deep, short enough not to swing into the house. Same hand tuned aluminium, nylon cord and machined striker as the rest of the range, made in Virginia.
The middle size, and the one most gardens want: deep enough to carry across a lawn without being the only thing anybody hears. Same hand tuned aluminium, same nylon cord and same striker as the larger one, in a shorter tube set.
The largest of the range, where the tube lengths get low enough that the sound is felt as much as heard. It needs a real hanging point and a garden with room around it, which is the honest caution: this is not a porch chime. Same aluminium, cord and striker as the rest.
A bell rather than a chime, which is a different object: one antiqued copper steel bell, one aluminium windcatcher and an ash clapper, giving a single low note instead of a run of them. Three materials, no mechanism, and forty inches of it.
Six bronze finished aluminium tubes tuned by the company's own musicians to play the opening of Amazing Grace in whatever order the wind takes them, on a teak finished ash hanger. The windcatcher lifts off, which is the one part that takes the weather worst and the one part you can replace.
The small one, for a porch or a balcony where a 36 inch chime would be too much of a presence. Same construction throughout: hand tuned aluminium, nylon cord, machined striker, made in Virginia.
The medium size in the same handmade Texan range, an octave below the soprano, which is the register where a chime stops being decoration and becomes something you hear across a garden. Tempered aluminium alloy that cannot rust, tuned to the same pentatonic scale so the two sizes play together.
Handmade in Texas in tempered aluminium alloy tubing made to the firm's own specification, tuned to the major pentatonic scale, which is the five note scale that cannot produce a sour interval however the wind hits it. Eleven tunings and five sizes are offered and they are built to blend with each other, so a second one bought years later still agrees with the first.
Tempered aluminium alloy, will not rust
Major pentatonic tuning
Handcrafted in the USA
Blends with the rest of the range
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Product photograph, Corinthian BellsTop pick
Product photograph, Corinthian Bells
Product photograph, Corinthian Bells
Product photograph, Corinthian Bells
Product photograph, Woodstock Chimes
Product photograph, Woodstock Chimes
Product photograph, Corinthian Bells