I have received more inquiries about my shop made thickness sander than I have for any other post! Go figure!
Though a thickness sander saves time I must admit that I love thicknessing thin stock the old fashioned way. I use a toothing plane, a number of bench planes and a scraper. It works well, it [...]
Monthly Archive for November, 2007
Quotes - Man Ray
Posted in Quotes on Nov 29th, 2007
“It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.”
“An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an original is motivated by necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.”
“I have been [...]
An Interesting Dulcimer
Posted in Dulcimer on Nov 25th, 2007
I find Google’s patent search to be a good resource for inspiration and research.
While searching for things dulcimer I came across this very interesting patent.
Aside from the foot pedal mechanism what interests me most about this design is the dulcimer itself. The wide hourglass shape, the modified scroll and the use of f-holes [...]
I just got home from an afternoon in the studio. I will soon have some sound bites of what I’m up to on these pages.
The process of recording always leaves me with mixed feelings; on one hand I find it creatively inspiring, on the other hand I am sometimes uncomfortable with the thought of freezing [...]
Hammered Dulcimer - Keeping It Simple
Posted in Hammered Dulcimer on Nov 20th, 2007
When I first began playing hammered dulcimer around 1975 the most common instruments had 12 courses over the treble or center bridge and 11 courses over the bass or left bridge. Hammered dulcimers are often described by the number of courses over the various bridges. The dulcimer described previously would be referred to as a [...]
I have read that scrapers may be one of the earliest tools used by early humans. Though scrapers are very simple tools they are still in use today.
The basic cabinet scraper is a rectangle of steel hard enough to hold an edge but soft enough to be easily sharpened. Most scrapers are made of [...]
The reinforcement strip and back braces are being shaped with chisels and scrapers. The chisel in the center is a crank necked paring chisel. The cranked neck of the chisel keeps my hand clear of the work.
The sides are dampened with water and sandwiched with a flexible thermal blanket between two sheets of flexible steel. [...]
A New Album In The Works
Posted in Music on Nov 1st, 2007
Greetings,
Today I went into the studio with the intention of recording a few tunes for a demo. It quickly became clear that this had morphed into an album project. I recorded two songs with the mountain dulcimer and I go back to the studio next week to record several more.I’ll also be recording some tunes [...]
