Cut the fret slots in the gourd banjo neck and laminated the gourd for improved strength and stability.

A new commission came in for a Boucher inspired minstrel banjo. This will have a 14" pot and a big ole 29" scale with scroll peghead and double ogees. Here's the full size plan.

 The neck is two piece laminated rippled English ash.

This is the former for the shield bracket shoes. needs a bit of finishing then i'll make a mould of it ready for sand casting in bronze.

Ive almost completed the walnut neck for the vintage vega pot.

A full week making banjos (and a uke)

Ive just had a whole week off work just to spend time working on my recent commisions. This was the result:

1920s Vega neck

Headstock overlay cut and thicknessed. Dowel rod cut and fitted and the hole in the pot has been adjusted and squared up. Dowel rod glued into neck and then lined up and fitted to pot. Headstock over lay glued to headstock then carving commences... theres a banjo neck in there somewhere.

A maple neck for a cookie tin banjo had its fretboard slots cut then glued on. I also cut the headstock angle but forgot to take photos of it.

 

I made this funky little marking tool to mark out the depth of cut for the binding the cut the bidning by hand using a chisel. A bit of a long winded job and to be honest i made a bit of a hash of it but good to start from the begining to learn fully about how the wood works in different directions and hows best to sharpen your chisels. Ive also started binding it using strips of maple and walnut veneer... once again i forgot to take pictures of this process.

On the last day i got another commission for a gourd banjo. This is how i mark out for cutting the top off. Its going to be fully fretted (my first fretted gourd) and i will be using Pegheds tuning pegs.

I also started work on my next 12" rim walnut neck banjo. This will be fretless with brass fingerboard, full handmade brass hardware, Sakura inspired shell inlay on the headstock... Its gonna be a cracker! Unfortunately once again i forgot to take pictures so your all going to have to wait and see.

1920s Vega

Here are some progress pics of a walnut neck im making to fit a 1920s vega pot.

Starting off with some reclaimed walnut laminated with a maple-fumed oak-maple centre stripe stripe

This is the jig i use to cut the heel radius. Its a bit awkward and inefficient so im going to develop it sometime soon.

This is the jig i use for cutting the peghead angle on my new table saw.

A quick check of algignment. Also on the bench are an Appalachian mountain banjo and coockie tin banjo.

Gluing and capping the carbon fibre tension rod.

Gluing on the fretboard

Sanding the peghead overlay to correct thickness using my home made thickness sander.

Hand planing the tapered dowel rod.

Fitting the dowel rod wa time consuming and tricky due to the fact that the holes on the old pot had previously been somewhat butchered

finally, it took the best part of a day, the neck and pot are together.

"Old Timer" Appalachian mountain banjo finished

 Just finished this. Appalachian mountain banjo No 8 "Old Timer" model made from reclaimed English elm for the pot and 500 year old Oak (from a barn in Eastern Europe) for the neck.

Patination for the nation

Doing the final touches on the Old Timer lefty mountain banjo before i fit the head.

First off is to hand carve the tuning pegs. I used Iroku for this. Used the tapering tool for the shaft and various other tools for the grips. My aim was to make them look like they had been made using pretty rudimentary tools... which they had and also be comfortable to use.

The nut is made from buffalo horn. I then used bees wax and a blow torch to deepen and enhance the effect of ware and old grime.

Im pretty pleased wth the results. next is to make the tone ring/ head tensioner and fit the head.

Im also working on a walnut neck to fit onto a 1920s Vega pot. Here is the first part of the process. Laminated some nicely quarter-sawn walnut using maple and fumed oak for the centre stripe. Then cut the radius using the jig on my oscillating spindle sander. Next step is to cut a channel for the carbon fibre rod.