Here are some photographs of things going on in the shop that have been cluttering up my hard drive.
As a dulcimer maker I do a lot of fine, detailed work requiring extreme precision and accuracy.
Perhaps this is why I love using a mallet! Here is my often used mallet resting on top of the form [...]
Category Archive for 'Lutherie'
I am often asked how long it takes me to make a dulcimer. The answer is that I don’t really know. Someday I will figure it out. I do know that I am not making very much per hour!
Here are some of the things that require my time before making a dulcimer.
Design – It took [...]
Studia Instrumentorum Musicae presents some rare resources for those interested in researching historic stringed instruments. I recommend starting with the on-line museum of historic guitars, zithers, and citterns.
The deeper you dig into this site the more treasure you will find.
This post is inspired by a router bit that slipped in the chuck while working on a curly claro walnut and Adirondack spruce dulcimer this afternoon.
When I saw the bit was tearing through the side of the dulcimer a sense of calm came over me. I turned off the router. I looked at the gaping [...]
The full title of this book is, “Field Book Of American Trees And Shrubs: A Concise Description Of The Character And Color Of Species Common Throughout The United States, Together With Maps Showing Their General Distribution.” I guess they were into long titles in 1915!
Woodworkers and luthiers could not do what they do without tress. This book [...]
My shop used to be a bedroom, a small bedroom. It is what a realtor would describe as being “cozy and intimate.”
I work primarily with hand tools so most of my time is spent standing or sitting by the bench.
I tend to multitask so there are several things in the works in this picture; [...]
The Natural History Of The Musical Bow (1899)
Posted in Jew's Harps, Lutherie, Music on Dec 1st, 2009
Musical bows are most likely the original stringed instrument.
Some are played in a fashion similar to the Jew’s harp; the player’s mouth is used as a resonator and by changing the shape of the mouth different harmonics are emphasized to produce melody.
Some musical bows are designed to allow defining notes by fingering the length of [...]
This information applies to dulcimers as well as any wooden stringed instrument.
Wood, no matter how well seasoned, will continue to expand and contract with changes in humidity.
One of the primary causes of damage to stringed instruments is dehydration. An instrument can dry out in a remarkably short period of time. As the wood becomes dry [...]
I envy my friends my woodworker friends who make things other than musical instruments. Even the pickiest of them often come home from a sawmill with beautiful, usable wood. For stringed instruments the choices quickly narrow down. For most parts of a dulcimer I will only use quarter sawn wood.
I generally have a hard [...]
Illustrations from “Sound” by John Tyndall (1915) via Google Books.