What's happening in your shed?

A demo of a semi medieval themed uke. Lots of decorative features. Citole, sheild shaped body, fleur-de-lis finials, customised initials and fleur-de-lis on the headstock. Tree of life sound hole. Soundboard from an old pine lining board, possibly hoop or bunya pine showing interesting chatoyance where the colour changes depending on the angle of view and light. The photos show the darker side swapping over depending upon the angle. Back and neck of Tasmanian (?) blackwood recycled from my old kitchen cupboard doors, spotted gum fretboard, position markers of abalone shell.
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A demo of a semi medieval themed uke. Lots of decorative features. Citole, sheild shaped body, fleur-de-lis finials, customised initials and fleur-de-lis on the headstock. Tree of life sound hole. Soundboard from an old pine lining board, possibly hoop or bunya pine showing interesting chatoyance where the colour changes depending on the angle of view and light. The photos show the darker side swapping over depending upon the angle. Back and neck of Tasmanian (?) blackwood recycled from my old kitchen cupboard doors, spotted gum fretboard, position markers of abalone shell.
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That's beautiful! With that pointy thing on the bottom, you can stick it in the sand when you go to the beach. ;)
 
Templates and two in progress instruments for a new tenor design I'm working on - one solid body version and one semi hollow.

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Templates and two in progress instruments for a new tenor design I'm working on - one solid body version and one semi hollow.

Very nice. That must make it so much easier cutting out the actual wood. I've never used a template because I don't make the same kind more than once.
 
Very nice. That must make it so much easier cutting out the actual wood. I've never used a template because I don't make the same kind more than once.

Yes, the templates are essential to this approach to building. The body is rough cut about 1/16" oversize on a band saw, then trimmed with a pattern bit in a router, using the template to guide the router. For solid body instruments, I make templates even if I expect it to be a "one off" build - the template doesn't take much time to make and routing the final profile on the body itself results in a very quick process and a body that needs minimal finish sanding. It usually takes me longer to sketch the design and lay it out, then tweak the drawing a bunch of times as I change my mind or refine the shape, and so on - than it does to actually make the template or the bodies once the drawing is done!
 
Several years ago my father gave me a couple chunks of a walnut tree that grew on my grandparent's property. It was cut down more than 30 years ago. The pieces are too short to make the usual length sides even for a soprano ukulele. I decided to make three piece sides with a short filler piece like this, and so far I'm happy with the results. The walnut does not have any fancy grain but it's starting to look nice even with only the first wash coat of shellac.

Walnut_uke by Thomas Snape, on Flickr
 
Sweet family story. Nice ukulele at the end. The end? No, just beguining...the wheel still turning...

Several years ago my father gave me a couple chunks of a walnut tree that grew on my grandparent's property. It was cut down more than 30 years ago. The pieces are too short to make the usual length sides even for a soprano ukulele. I decided to make three piece sides with a short filler piece like this, and so far I'm happy with the results. The walnut does not have any fancy grain but it's starting to look nice even with only the first wash coat of shellac.
 
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Hello!
The mezzo soprano in progress.
Near final touch at neck/fingerboard before gluying to the body.
Several other pics on the blog, if curious...

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Someone who didn't know me requested a traditional guitar shaped uke. Forgot to subtract wood thickness from internal Ford film style mold so a very snug fit in my standard uke case. I probably could have fiddled the book matching a little better by either offsetting or trimming the panels rather than just taking them off the saw as I did. A bit of staining on the back when I wetted it to see the grain and put it down on my band saw table.

Full Tasmanian(?) blackwood recycled from my old kitchen cupboard doors except spotted gum fretboard and Monterey pine rosette and braces. Fret dots punched from old bread tags. Melamine chopstick nut. Bought a bone saddle and open tuners on ebay. Back is arched. Name is just super glued down reversed tracing paper in Lucy Script from Dafont.com to make it doubly personalised.
 
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The latest set of 3.
Baritone in quilted maple, curly redwood top, koa binding and headplate, macassar ebony fingerboard and bridge, scoop in redwood burl
Tenor (for a rising star singer/songwriter friend) in Pennsylvania black walnut, curly redwood top, Richlite headplate, fingerboard and bridge, Philadelphia skyline inlays, scoop in redwood burl, arm bevel.
Soprano in quilted maple, Pennsylvania aromatic cedar top, casuarina fingerboard and bridge, custom moon and stars inlays.
 

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Design transfer

Transferring my design onto my latest uke with tracing paper.
Bob
 

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The latest set of 3.
Baritone in quilted maple, curly redwood top, koa binding and headplate, macassar ebony fingerboard and bridge, scoop in redwood burl
Tenor (for a rising star singer/songwriter friend) in Pennsylvania black walnut, curly redwood top, Richlite headplate, fingerboard and bridge, Philadelphia skyline inlays, scoop in redwood burl, arm bevel.
Soprano in quilted maple, Pennsylvania aromatic cedar top, casuarina fingerboard and bridge, custom moon and stars inlays.

Gorgeous as usual, Jon! I love what you're doing with local and sustainable woods.
 
Today I made arm bevel. I used nice walnut burl veneer that I will use in headstock too. This needs some fine-tuning, but I'm pretty happy with it.IMG_20210221_221451_272.jpg
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I'm working on a backpacker uke. My take on Fred Shields design.
There's an axiom amongst backpackers: Everything in your pack must have at least two uses. Example: your tin coffee cup is also your cookpot and eating bowl.
This uke will be both a ukulele and a flyswatter. ;)
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