From Paul: This is really interesting timber called "salvage timber". About 100 yrs ago, they used to log the old growth, virgin forests around the Great Lakes and float the logs to the sawmill. Many of them sank and sat on the bottom of the lakes for all these years. Now, people are hauling them up and sawing them into amazingly good wood. They were down deep enough where there is little oxygen and as a result, the wood is as good as the day it was sawn.
That is very good indeed-- in the old growth forests with a thick tree cover, new trees grew very slowly with extremely tight graining, much better than anything growing today.

Review by John (jsluder): Bird's-eye maple -- Visually, this is the most beautiful whistle I've ever seen; almost mesmerizing. The pattern on the wood is stunning, and the stainless steel fittings complement the unstained maple perfectly. I warmed the whistle in my hands for a bit, then played a few tunes. What a lovely sound! I had to force myself to put it down (and swab it out) after 20 minutes (to allow the wood to acclimate gradually). The only downside to this whistle is that it's difficult to look at it while I'm playing it! (Although, being near-sighted, I can focus my eyes on it better if I remove my glasses.)