A bit more work on the Old Timer. After coating with ebonising solution, to get the tanning nice and dark, I went to work on it with various staines, Indian ink, files, scrapers, burnishers, beeswax, fire and potassium dichromate... all good fun! The tailpiece is from an antique shoe last.

Heres an "Old Timer" mountain banjo that ive just started. Its a left hander and twice i nearly cu the neck for a right hander! The pot is English Elm reclaimed from a piece of furniture and the neck is a piece of 500 year old oak reclaimed from an old barn... man its hard stuff!

A nice little repair job. These Deering Goodtime headstocks are attached with finger splines which look pretty weak and does seem to be a common breaking point.Simply re gluing wasn't really an option as some of the splines had snapped so i inlayed some maple reinforcement.

my first modern banjo

12" maple pot (3" deep), 24 1/2" short scale walnut neck with maple centre strip, ebony fretboard and peghead overlay, rosewood tonering and ebony rim and heel caps with matching purfling, house sparrow inlay, carbon fibre truss rod, raw brass hardware - all made in house, stained calfskin vellum.

My aim is to make banjos as environmentally as possible so the walnut, rosewood and ebony are all from reclaimed sources. The cast brass bracket shoes were cast a couple of miles from my workshop and from recycled brass.

This banjo wont be for sale but im about to start 2 more which will.

more ukulele stuff

I've been watching some videos on YouTube by the wonderful classical guitar luthier Michael Thames. Showing how to make soundhole rosettes - intricate and fascinating stuff. This led me to thinking about having a go at making my own. as i couldn't find any commercially available binding that i liked i have decided to make my own as well as a simple rosette around the sound hole.

 

Started trimming some timber for the binding. Using walnut and maple veneer and some slightly thicker strips of mahogany.

 

 Here are all the pieces cut to the required thickness and length.

I was going to use me Dremmel to cut the rosette slot but saw a nice little hand made cutter on line. so i copied it... and hey! it works a treat! Its made from an offcut of sapelle and the blade is cut from an old plane iron.

here are a bunch of necks ive made ... ready for the onslaught of uke orders... er... anybody out there?

building ukuleles

A few things on the go this week.

12" walnut banjo

Ive started cutting the area at the back of the headstock on my personal 12" banjo. this will be for the back strap. 

Also been getting everything lined up for size. Next is to cut a slot for the truss rod. Im thiking of trying out a carbon fibre non adjustable.

Mahogany soprano ukulele

Ive had some mahogany panels that i rescued from an old Edwardian wardrobe kicking about for a couple of years. Id always planned on making a couple of uke from them. This week i finally got started.

These are the side ribs bent using my home made bending iron (It works!). I definately need more practice at this.

The bend at the waist has  few creases which im hoping i can remove by sanding and scraping - being careful not to make the timber too thin. It was particularly tricky as i designed quite a narrow waist which i thought looked nice without considering the build practicalities.

Also this join could be a bit neater. but i can hide this with an infill using the same material that will be used for the binding.

Fitting some tulip wood kerfing also trickier than expected due to the tight curve of the waist.

New timber

A couple of week ago i came across some London plane that had been chopped down by the council... so i helped myself to a few logs.

Once quarter-sawn than planed they will be stored for a couple of years to season then used on future ukulele. Hopefully by then my building technique will be much better

 

Quater-sawn London plane reveals a very nice "lace wood" figure. Its also a very good tone wood so hopefully these are going to be some pretty sweet ukes.

my first adventure into inlay

As i currently have no commissions i am working on my own personal banjo. Itll be a 12" maple pot with a rosewood tonering and ebony rim cap and a walnut neck.

A chance to try out a few new techniques... one of which is a peghead inlay of a European house sparrow using various woods and mother of pearl.

short scale gourd banjo

I just finished this cute little gourd banjo. Its a neck i made a while ago for a tack head which never really sounded great. So i decided to fit it to a gourd... much better. The gourd as been reinforced with fibreglass and sounds super sweet. its currently tuned to standard G.

It Is for sale for £400 contact me at flatfootjohnny@hotmail.com

1st post of 2015

I finished 2014 with a lefty "Old Timer" mountain banjo and a walnut mountain banjo, and i started a short scale gourd banjo.