October was a 6 banjo month with had three stock banjos and three custom banjos to build. #170 was an 11″ curly maple banjo with a Silver Bell tone ring from Bill Rickard. The customer asked for aged hardware, and to have the banjo sent unfinished so he could do that part himself.

Banjo #171 was another curly maple with aged brass hardware, but this time in the 12″ size, with a fancier peghead, a wood tine ring profile and a John Balch stained head.

#172 was a walnut 12″ with nickel hardware and pearl dots, and a brass hoop tone ring.

Banjos 173 through 175 are stock banjos, shown on the Banjos page. I am very pleased to have finally gotten a bluegrass banjo built with the hardware I bought from Eric Sullivan in the spring, it was a fun change from always building open backs.

Dulcimer #49 was my last project for the month. I’ve only had one dulcimer left in stock for a few months and with the holidays approaching I thought it was time to make another cherry dulcimer, and I had enough extra time to get it made before finishing day, since the blanks were all cut out for the parts, waiting on the shelf since last winter.

November looks like it will include two custom banjos, one or two necks, a fiddle and three stock banjos. I’ll miss the whole of Election Day when I’m going to work at the polls from early till late, but otherwise I should be able to spend a lot of time in the shop now that fall is really closing in and the outside work is mostly done for the year.