February started off pretty quietly in the shop. I didn’t have any custom work lined up, so I took a few days to put together these birch bark veneered wood corners for the museum in town where I volunteer. They had old ones from when they opened 20 years ago that were a bit worn, so I made 24 of these to replace them, though they didn’t all fit in the picture. Birch bark is a bit of a challenging material, but it was a fun project overall.
The first instrument of the month was #435, a stock 12″ walnut banjo which is shown on the Banjos page. Next came a batch with a custom banjo and a stock banjo. #436 is an 11″ tenor banjo, made from cherry with a hop-hornbeam fretboard.
#437 is a cherry 11″ stock banjo, shown on the Banjos page. The last batch of the month included a walnut parlor guitar, #24. The neck is a bit wider than what I usually make, and this was my first slot head acoustic guitar, as best I can remember.
There was also a curly maple A style octave mandolin(#17), with a 21.5″ scale length and cherry trim.
Lastly there was a walnut fretless neck for a vintage banjo pot sent by the customer.
I didn’t complete the setup of the last instrument till the morning of March 4th, but I figure that in a non-leap year March 3rd can also be regarded as February 31st. I have started my first batch of March instruments, which includes a custom tenor banjo and a custom 5 string with a Little Wonder tone ring, and a stock 12″ cherry and 11″ walnut banjo. I also plan in the next batch to make a new cello banjo and a new 11″ walnut banjo with a Whyte Laydie tone ring to replace stock banjos that were just sold. If more custom orders come in I will build them, or if not I have an archtop guigtar bodied octave mandolin that I started in February to complete to have in stock, and I still intend to make a couple more fiddles one of these days. Spring is not far away now, and today was the first day that really felt like it.