Musician and Appalachian Mountain Dulcimer Maker
Posted in Dulcimer on May 30th, 2008
This clip is from “The World,” a New York City newspaper dated August 30th, 1900: Crockett’s Dulcimer “Here is a dulcimer which belonged to the great pioneer Davy Crockett. It was made by a French army officer who served under Lafayette. It is now owned by Geo. F. Crockett of Philadelphia, a second cousin of [...]
Posted in Dulcimer, Lutherie, Thoughts, Tools on May 22nd, 2008
I was joining a two piece maple dulcimer back this afternoon. I shoot the joint with a jointer plane; a Stanley #7. The throat is set tight and I hone the blade with a back bevel which roughly gives me a 55 degree cutting angle. Having the plane set up this way lets me make [...]
These four dulcimers are in the home stretch. Today they will get one more coat of finish and in a few days I will be rubbing out the finishes and setting them up. I tend towards a thin finish on the soundboard and a few more coats on the back and sides. The thinner finish [...]
I am currently at the finishing stage of making two CDs and five dulcimers. It is at this stage that my eyes and ears become increasingly more critical of my work. What began as a burst of creative force transmutes into discernment. The dark side of this process for me is when the critical eye [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 10th, 2008
Woodworker Qing made elaborately carved wooden bell stands. When others saw the completed bell stands, they were startled and thought they must have been created by supernatural beings. The Marquis of Lu saw one of them and asked: “What special art (artistic skill) do you have to be able to do this?” He replied, “Your [...]
Many instruments with flat tops and backs actually have some slight arching built into them. The arching ads stiffness and strength to the thin top and back. On guitars the soundboard must not only create the sound of the instrument but it also must resist the tension of six strings. Traditional dulcimer designs usually employ [...]
Posted in Tools on May 3rd, 2008
The other day I was thinking it would be nice to have a small and accurate table saw. I have a portable contractors saw that works well but I wanted a tool that had the feeling of solidity that only cast iron provides. An aluminum table might be great for a picnic but it feels [...]
This morning I posted about some wood I was going to resaw. Some of the wood shown in today’s earlier post has been resawn as well as a few other boards. Some of the boards needed to be flattened before they could be resawn. For the ones with a lot of twist I prefer using [...]
When I shop for wood I never know what I’ll come home with. Usually I plan on getting something specific but often I find that what I want isn’t available. Sometimes I’m lucky and come home with something unexpected and wonderful. That is how I came to acquire this Curly Sapele or Mahogany. I’m not [...]
