I was extraordinarily ill for the past week, and therefore was not able to get much work done. But things are looking up now. I finished shaping Tim's oak neck. It's been a long time since I have worked in oak, and it's been really fun. I definitely have to do some more projects with this wood. The neck already has a solid, but very primitive, plain look that I love.

I also added a number of new recordings to the, "listen" page, sampling two more banjos.

Tim's new banjo is finally underway. Here are some photos. Taken on my low-res camera phone, they reveal not only a new, oak neck in the early states of construction, but also a) my messy workshop for the first time on the internet, and b) my other main project at the moment, waiting quietly in the corner while i wait for a new head gasket.

Well, I finished a major overhaul of the gallery. It might appear to be a minor redesign, but it now allows me to post three images of every banjo, which means I can also include shots of miscellaneous details for each instrument. Almost all of the banjos in the current gallery were sold long ago, and thus I don't have additional photos on hand for all of them, but many have been updated. Here's one example of a newly included detail.

There are going to be some changes made to the gallery over the coming days, so please excuse any weird things that might start popping up.

Well, Last night I put the finishing touches on Josh's banjo. I decided to laminate the inside of the hoop with two strips of steam-bent oak in order to sure up the 100+ year-old grain measure, and the results are great. Here are some photos showing the banjo throughout the construction process...

First, this instrument was originally inspired by a banjo for sale at Bernunzio.com. It was an odd instrument, and I borrowed the general aesthetic to create a banjo two years ago that it currently viewable in the gallery section of this web site. The current banjo picks up where that one left off, and is somewhat fancier than the previous one. But, just to give you an idea of where it all came from, the original 19th-century banjo looks like this...



Here are some shots of my version:

The neck, just after rough shaping


The dowel stick turning on the lathe


Neck with dowel stick attached


The lathe-turned dowel stick


The fancy ebony tailpiece


And, finally, the whole banjo (click to see full size)


Next project coming soon...

Ah, it's been a busy past several weeks down in the shop. I'm just putting the finishing touches on a really nice tackhead minstrel banjo for Josh in New York. It's got a fanciful, turned dowel stick and is built around an exquisite 19th century grain measure from New Hampshire. He wanted me to reproduce a banjo that he saw on the website, but gave my free reign to improve on it as I saw fit, and the results are really gratifying so far. Tonight after dinner I fired up a few episodes of This American Life and headed down into the shop, where I managed to tack the head on and dry it out. I also recently finished a nice gourd with a bocote fingerboard for Carolyn in Texas, shipped out a canarywood model to Jan in Ohio, and am about to start working on an interesting project with Tim Twiss, banjo player and historian from Michigan. We're going to explore an older, more primitive aesthetic, and I'm going to incorporate that into a gourd banjo that I'll be building during the coming weeks.

In terms of supplies, I've got a large shipment of lumber coming in from a sawyer in Indiana that will include some beautiful figured and plain black walnut, red oak, and ash, and I'm still trying to work out a deal with a woodworker in Kentucky for a large shipment of nicely aged cherry and walnut. In addition, I've got several grain measures coming, as well as a new shipment of pear gourds en-route from welburn.

All this work was complicated a bit by a looming application for graduate school that I finally finished (time to open up the windows, dust off the bookshelf, and let some sunlight into the brain again), and all seems to be back on track again. I would like to start putting together some minstrel banjos with proper, adjustable heads, but first I have to either find a reliable source for hardware, or start learning to do the metalwork myself, though I'm not sure I really have the capacity for that right now.

Michaela is asleep, and I'm hiding in the corner typing this. If I wake her up I'll be in trouble, so I'll end this entry with a shot of the banjo I did for Carolyn, and Josh's banjo just before I tacked the head on (ignore any dirty laundry that might be peripherally visible, please).