Fiery Cocobolo

8. May 2008 Eric

Well, as promised, here are some pictures of the back of the psaltery that I have been working on.

I’ve finally got my new photography tent all set up, and this was one of the very first pictures. I’m still tweaking and perfecting things, so please bear with me. It has always been at the forefront of my mind just as to how to go about photographing a bowed psaltery. The shape is very awkward, and I never can seem to settle on one single correct viewing angle.

As for the psaltery itself, it should be evident from the title of this post what the figure on this instrument resembles. I took one extra picture of the back to show a better view of the details.

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Custom Bearclaw Tops

6. May 2008 Eric

I was thinking about Bearclaw Sitka Spruce, and how each one of the tops are completely different from each other. Some have big splotches of figure, others have smaller streaks, and still others have thinner lines and trails of bearclaw figure. Additionally, the figure didn’t seem to continue itself very deeply in the wood, which made it a little bit more difficult to get perfectly symmetrical figure in the bookmatched tops.

None of them, however, looked as though a bear had run his claws across the board, (where the name had first originated from.)

As a result of this uniqueness, I’ve decided to list each Bearclaw Spruce top individually in the Treasure Trove. The top on the left shows some nice figure, along with a very good level of symmetry as well.

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All Dressed Up…

5. May 2008 Eric

Here is a near-complete psaltery that looks all dressed up. It has black pins, and an ebony bridge and binding. In contrast, it also has light-colored nickel-plated strings and black and white purfling around the binding.

In case you were wondering, this is the (almost) end result of Arielle’s psaltery. All that’s left is to buff out the back and sides, (hopefully I’ll add more pictures of that too), and wait a bit longer for the finish to harden.

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Fun with Perspective

28. April 2008 Eric

I’ve always found it somewhat humorous how easily it can be to alter the perceived length of a bowed psaltery. Since I seem to have taken pictures of all sorts of bowed psalteries already, I thought today I would have fun with it a little and take a picture from an interesting angle.

You can see from the picture on the left that changing the angle can drastically alter the perceived length of the psaltery. Yes, believe it or not, the psaltery above is actually of standard length and width.

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Pencils in the Miter Track

25. April 2008 Eric

Here’s a tip for any woodworkers or luthiers out there: if you’re at all like me, you’re always grabbing for a writing instrument to mark a board. Oftentimes they get “misplaced” or knocked around while working on a project. (I go through quite a number of pencils in any given week while making bowed psalteries.)

Well, as you can see from the photo on the left, here’s my cheap, somewhat quirky solution. Stash a whole bunch of pencils or other writing utencils in the miter tracks of your power tools. You could put pens, pencils, chalk, crayons, etc. in the standard miter tracks that come on many table saws and bandsaws. They sit below the surface of the table, and don’t interfere with regular cutting operations (unless you’re using a jig that makes use of the track, of course). Plus, they’re always in plain site and easy to find.

This has been another groundbreaking tip from Phantasy Psalteries.

(And no, in case you were wondering from the photo, I’m not a Clevland Browns fan - it’s just a random pencil that I had lying around.)

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A Trio of Rosettes

18. April 2008 Eric

I must admit that inlaying rosettes is one of my least favorite things to do. Accordingly, sometimes I can get a small buildup of these things before I finally get the time to actually inlay them in a soundboard.

On the left, you can see three such rosettes that are ready to adorn a bowed psaltery soundhole. From left to right: 5/16″ banding, a custom Cocobolo rosette, and a new 3-holed design I’m trying out.

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Fun with Double Bookmatching

12. April 2008 Eric

To the left you can see the beginning of my little experiment. I had a narrow yet thick chunk of Cocobolo left from cutting the sides to Arielle’s psaltery, and I was trying to see if I couldn’t find a use for it somehow.

One thing that struck me was that it had the most beautiful sapwood, yet it was too narrow to make an entire back from it, so I decided to cut the board into four strips and bookmatch each pair of strips, to make a four-piece back. Since the sapwood (the lighter area of the wood), was so dramatic and figured, I decided to highlight that area and maximize its area on the back.

I really like how the whole back turned out once I cut out the shape of the psaltery. You can see this piece, along with a closeup shot of the sapwood area, in the Treasure Trove section of my main website.

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Pore Filling Cocobolo with CA Glue

8. April 2008 Eric

To the left you can see the two things that I use to fill the pores in various woods, (in this case, Cocobolo), before applying the finish.

1. Medium viscosity CA glue.
2. A deck of playing cards.

What I do is drizzle the CA glue somewhat sparingly over the wood surface to be filled, (a little CA glue goes a long way), and then just use a playing card to level and spread the glue throughout the entire surface of the wood. I also use a box fan on my work table to prevent my eyes from watering up from the fumes.

I use shellac to seal the wood first, so less CA glue is wasted and absorbed into the wood fibers. (Multiple applications can sometimes be necessary.) And in this case, with Cocobolo, it was just about a necessity to seal the wood first, because Cocobolo’s colors will leach into the finish (or pore filler) and taint the nearby wood. In this case, the white lines on the purfling would’ve turned orange if I hadn’t (gingerly) sealed the wood before filling the pores.

To the left you can see the wood surface just after I’ve filled the pores. (The actual color is just a bit redder in person.) The surface will obviously be uneven, but once the CA glue is fully dried, I will go back over it with a cabinet scraper, and/or sandpaper and level things off. Once the wood’s pores are glassy smooth and filled to my liking, I like to let the entire psaltery sit overnight before starting to apply the finish. This ensures that all the solvents and chemicals within the CA glue won’t get trapped under the finish.

I love CA glue as a pore filler because, unlike most pore fillers which are colored, CA is completely transparent and lets the natural beauty of the wood show through. Take a look at an example of a finished Cocobolo psaltery, with its pores filled and a gloss finish applied and buffed.

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Arielle’s Psaltery

2. April 2008 Eric

Here’s a shot of a psaltery that I’m currently working on:

I still can’t get over how great the rosette looks on this psaltery. It almost looks like a little band of fire inlaid into the Mahogany. I think I may have to try and go back and salvage some more strips from that board and see if I can’t duplicate this rosette again.

The Cocobolo sides appear darker than they actually are, because of shadows. But usually its the opposite, as freshly sanded Cocobolo turns much lighter, and quickly darkens over the course of a few days as it is exposed to air.

I’ve worked with so much Cocobolo over the past few weeks, it starts to worry me. I once heard it said: “there are two types of people in this world: those that are allergic to Cocobolo, and those that will be.” I guess I’ll just enjoy this wood as long as I’m able to, and hopefully I don’t develop a severe allergy to it!

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Spring Cleaning

28. March 2008 Eric

This week, probably for the first time this entire year, it feels as though I am finally “cruising” on building psalteries. I don’t have to go out and buy any supplies. I don’t have a cold or flu. I don’t have to make any new jigs or shop fixtures. I can focus on just psalteries.

I’ve been doing some spring cleaning though, and I’m clearing out some of the wood that’s been sitting in my drying cabinet for probably around a year. I’ve found some pieces that I’d forgotten I even had, and some that I’ve just plain neglected. But, you can expect to see a lot of neat new stuff in the treasure trove soon.

I’ll be adding some Honduran Rosewood sets, some crazy Cocobolo sets, (just need to get some side pieces to match them), and some really nice Spalted/Curly Ash, just to name a few.

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Some New Note Markers

27. March 2008 Eric

I’ve added a few new note marker options. (You can check out all the options here.)

The first is the elegant Black Star Diopside. (Which reflects a beautiful floating light within the stone.)

And the second addition is a timeless classic: pearls. (Genuine pearls cultured on a freshwater pearl farm.)

I’m continually experiementing with new stones and new designs for note markers. In the future, I hope to offer even more options. Hopefully one such option that’s coming soon will be red jasper. I can always use about as precious a gemstone cabochons as anyone would want, (ruby, sapphire, etc.) yet these would most likely cost as much or more than the instrument itself. But if anyone is interested, please let me know via email and I should be able to work something out with you.

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A Psychedelic Rosette

20. March 2008 Eric

As I was cutting some straight-grained 1/4″ x 1/4″ strips of Cocobolo for  rosettes, a funny thing happened. I rotated the otherwise straight-grained strip 90 degrees onto its side, and was amazed at the crazy colors and patterns that were present in an otherwise plain board.

Show to the left is a rosette made from the afore-mentioned psychedelic Cocobolo strips, which is sitting on top of a figured Mahogany soundboard.

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Some Nice Cherry

14. March 2008 Eric

Here’s a cherry bowed psaltery that I’m currently working on. Its not strung up or finished yet, so I can’t say for sure how it will sound, but it’s tap-tone is outstanding. This is a great piece of cherry, with an unusual amount of resonance for a wood this light. (Note, as of right now, there is also another set available in the Treasure Trove for a custom psaltery.)

Unfortunately, I am sick once again.  It’s not the flu, but it’s still a bad cough/cold, and enough to slow me down this week.

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Quiltage

8. March 2008 Eric

I felt constrained to help explain the phenomenon in certain types of Maple (mostly in soft Maple), known as “quilting.” Now, I’m certainly no expert on the matter, but I have worked with the wood before.

Basically, the wood looks blistered and crinkled up - and the more three dimensional the quilt, the better.

Now, another factor that can come into play is the viewing angle required to see the quilting. On the best pieces, (that is, with the heaviest amount of quilt), it will look completely three-dimensional at nearly all angles, and you’ll have to rub your eyes to make sure that what you’re seeing is actually flat. But most pieces, like the one pictured on the left, looks good only at certain angles.

You’ll notice that this picture was taken at a fairly low angle to the wood. (Plus, it’s dyed blue!) Usually, when viewed at a steep angle like this, the quilt is easily recognized. When it becomes less apparent is when the wood is viewed straight on, that is, basically perpendicular to the surface of the wood.

Here’s the same piece of wood, viewed straight on. You can see how some of the “3D effects” aren’t as prominent anymore. And to be honest, I think the camera is even being generous in this picture - this wood looks mostly flat.

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