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February banjos and octave mandolins
This has been a bit of an odd month, but mostly in a good way. At the start of the month I was working on two custom banjos and a stock octave mandolin. Then the bigger bandsaw (a Parks 18″ from the 1980s or so) had a bearing go out on the lower shaft. For…
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January banjos, an archtop guitar, and a fiddle
January was my most productive month yet, I think. I got back into the shop on the evening of the 30th after a Christmas break while my sister was visiting for a week. I had been gradually working on an unusual project and got my part of it completed early in the month. It was a Kraske-inspired…
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December banjos and a fiddle
December started with #318, another stock C scale mahogany banjo that is shown on the Banjos page. Banjo #319 started as a custom rim and tone ring job and ended up as a whole banjo. It is my first banjo with a 13″ pot. The customer sent a box of flooring offcuts of reclaimed old growth pine, and…
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November banjos and a neck
I forgot to say in my October news that banjo #313 was built as a stock mahogany C scale, but was spoken for before it was completed and thus is not shown on the Banjos page. November was disrupted by some back trouble, but the first and last weeks were pretty normal, so I was…
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October banjos, a mandolin, and a fiddle
My first completed project in October was Banjo #309, a custom walnut A scale with an Electric-type tone ring. #310 and 311 were stock banjos and are shown on the Banjos page. #312 was a left handed 12″ walnut banjo. I also made a walnut mandolin and chicken head fiddle which are shown on their…
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September banjos
September was not a terribly productive month, but I got 4 stock banjos built. Banjos 305-308 are shown on the Banjos page. I also had a fun project fitting a neck I had made for another customer’s banjo pot onto a newly assembled thin-wall pot with a Dobson tone ring. The rim was very nice,…
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August banjos and a mandolin
August was a moderately productive month. It was a bit damp and cool on the recreational side of things, so I stayed in the shop more and got more done than I had expected. Banjo #300 was an 11″ walnut slot head with a tunneled 5th string. Banjo #301 is a stock slot head, shown…
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July banjos, a neck, house and shop painting, and forgetfulness
For some reason which is not clear to me slot head banjos have suddenly become the thing that people are asking me for. I’m happy to make slot heads, though sometimes these changes (or maybe they’re just random chance) take me by surprise. Banjo #294 was a custom walnut cello banjo. The customer wanted nylon…
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June banjos, a guitar, a hammered dulcimer and camping
June in the shop started with a bang and ended with a whimper. I began by building a curly maple parlor guitar. It is for sale at Tupper Arts in Tupper Lake through July 4th, and assuming it has not sold I will then bring it back here and it will be shown on the…
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May banjos, a guitar, and porches
May was not my most productive month in the shop, but I got a few things done. Early in the month I called my friendly local excavator operator to see if he would have time later in the summer to tear out the failed concrete porches at either end of the house here in Piercefield…