Bridge saddle and nut day

Timbuck

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Spent most of the day stocking up on spares..I'd run out of ebony saddle and nut strips..and only had a couple of bridges left .. so today I got busy making some more I ended up making 56 bridges here the are after jig drilling the string knot holes ;)
IMG_0610 by Ken Timms, on Flickr
 
You could always try knob thorn (Senegalia nigrescens) for nut/saddles. Harder than ebony with less dampening. It's hardness is more like Lignum but without the CITES classification. The people who supply pen blank material sometimes have it. I've just tried it on a guitalele type guitar and I'm not going back to ebony or bone.
. . . . that's a fair number of bridges!
 
I count 56. That's a lot of ukes to build. Should keep you busy at Acme Ukes Lmt.
There was meant to be 60 but I scrapped 4 due defects in the wood :)...Here's an old video of the slotting operation I used to make 3/32" thick saddles but nowadays I cut the slots for 1/16" same as the old Martin style 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnLg_B_2Jq4
 
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Is it necessary for the saddle to pass slowly under the lathe blade? Could you chuck a drill onto where the crank is (not the human)? :D
 
Now all you have to do is make the bits that connect those two pieces!
H
 
Now all you have to do is make the bits that connect those two pieces!
H

I haven’t liked to ask about the other of the two parts mentioned in the thread title (it might come across badly), but I wonder where they are and how Ken makes them.
 
I haven’t liked to ask about the other of the two parts mentioned in the thread title (it might come across badly), but I wonder where they are and how Ken makes them.
Nuts and Saddles ?
I just make 12 inch long strips out of ebony ..1/16" x 1/4" for saddles and 3/16" x 7/32" for nuts..and i cut and shape them to length when needed .:)
 
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Nuts and Saddles ?
I just make 12 inch long strips out of ebony ..1/16" x 1/4" for saddles and 3/16" x 7/32" for nuts..and i cut and shape them to length when needed .:)

Thanks.

I guess that you use Ebony because that’s what the original design was, is that correct?

Have you done any videos of your nut and saddle making? You might find making them rather quick and simple but having made saddles from bone blanks I know that it’s (or can be) quite hard and time consuming to do. Making a nut out of wood instead of bone is something for me to think on too, will any hard wood to hand do or does it have to be something in particular?
 
Thanks.

I guess that you use Ebony because that’s what the original design was, is that correct?

Have you done any videos of your nut and saddle making? You might find making them rather quick and simple but having made saddles from bone blanks I know that it’s (or can be) quite hard and time consuming to do. Making a nut out of wood instead of bone is something for me to think on too, will any hard wood to hand do or does it have to be something in particular?
Most of the vintage Island ukes where made all from Koa including the neck, nut & bridge with no seperate saddle like this one from 1910.koa uke.jpg I think bone plastic and rosewood fretboards started when guitar and mandolin making factories started to see a market in ukulele's in the 1920's thats when ukuleles started to look like mini guitars ukugit.jpg ..then it got ridiculous :) strat uke.jpg Making an ebony nut vintage Martin style isn't very difficult you just need a good eye.m nut.jpg
 
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