Quiltage
Saturday, day 8. March 2008I 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 […]
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Strings, strings, and more strings
Friday, day 7. March 2008 Well, after quite a prolonged shortage, I’ve finally got my shipment of wound strings! Look for a new batch of bowed psalteries to be listed on the main site: Phantasy Psalteries in the near future.
After having experimented with all sorts of strings during the beginning of the year, I really am leaning toward nickel-plated […]
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High-Gloss Psaltery
Thursday, day 28. February 2008I took this picture right after buffing out the back of a Cocobolo bowed psaltery I am working on. As you can see from the reflection, the light bulb is a Sylvania.
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Sick as a dog
Thursday, day 21. February 2008 Well, I’ve been sick with either the flu, or a really bad cold for most of this week. Consequently, I haven’t been able to finish any psalteries lately, but there are plenty of them on the horizon.
For now, since I am mostly bedridden, (or sometimes “office-chair-ridden”), I decided to make a little slideshow to […]
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Another Safari
Wednesday, day 13. February 2008A while back I had a few psalteries for sale that I had called “Safari” because of their somewhat wild looks. Here’s another addition to that collection.
As you can see from the picture, it is made of beautiful Zebrawood. The sides are also solid Zebrawood, versus the veneered sides on my previous psalteries.
Note also the […]
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How ’bout Blue?
Friday, day 8. February 2008Well, maybe I get bored easily, but I always like to try new things. Here you see a Quilted Maple back of a psaltery that has been tinted blue. I think this one will definitely carry the “Atlantis” name-badge.
I’m not too big of a fan of the artificial look, but it was an interesting exercise. […]
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Carbon Fiber Saddles
Thursday, day 31. January 2008I was pleasantly surprised today at the performance of a new saddle material. As a matter of fact, I found it so superior to just about all other saddle options, that I’m thinking of phasing out nearly all other materials for saddles. (Except of course using an all-wood bridge with no saddle at all, which […]
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What a Difference a Little Sanding Makes…
Monday, day 28. January 2008In the picture to the left you’ll see what a bowed psaltery looks like after I’ve just glued the binding on. Actually, since I’m experimenting with a new type of binding - Verawood - and the back and sides are made of Cocobolo, (all very oily and resinous woods), I chose to use CA glue […]
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Tim’s “Celtic” Psaltery
Wednesday, day 16. January 2008 Here you can see a bowed psaltery that I just finished stringing. It has a bookmatched Sitka Spruce top with a Celtic knot style rose, along with a ring of burled walnut to border it. The trim and bridge is Black Walnut, and the back and sides are Curly Maple.
And I just had to […]
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Custom Turned Tuning Wrench
Monday, day 14. January 2008About a week ago, the thought occurred to me that I could make my own tuning wrench handles. Since then, I’ve been itching to give it a go.
“But what kind of wood should I use for the handle?” I thought.
Well, I resolved that question by making my first tuning wrench handle out of something entirely […]
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A True Heavyweight Psaltery…
Wednesday, day 9. January 2008One of the psalteries that I’m currently working on is with a wood that is the heaviest that I’ve used to date: a tropical rosewood called Cocobolo.
It has probably one of the brightest and glassiest tap-tones of any wood I’ve come across, and it’s also one of my personal favorites in terms of beauty. See […]
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Fun with Bookmatching
Monday, day 7. January 2008As I was walking past a bowed psaltery in progress, I noticed an interesting phenomenon with the wood.
Light tends to reflect off of the wood in different ways depending on the orientation of the wood. So, two bookmatched panels, which are basically identical in color and grain pattern, can look different because they are oriented […]
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Santa Fe #2
Wednesday, day 2. January 2008I’ve been quite busy lately, and though I’ve said that I will be getting back into building psalteries, I still really haven’t re-established a normal routine yet coming off from the holidays. The last two weeks feel like about 3 months have gone by.
Anyhow, I did manage to do one thing: take a picture of […]
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A Burled Walnut Ring
Tuesday, day 18. December 2007I used a nifty new tool today to cut a burled walnut rosette ring. It is very similar to a standard circle cutter for a drill press, but instead of one cutter, it has two - one on each side.
By using two cutters, I can cut out both the inner and outer diameters of the […]
Tools and Equipment, Building | 1 Comment »
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