Ordered

I've now ordered the wood for the back, ribs and soundboard, in rosewood and spruce respectively, from the ever helpful touchstone tonewoods. I have also bought two sets of Schaller adjustable pegs. I was torn between these and the traditional ones, so I hope I chose right. The wood for the top and bottom is a bit narrower than I wanted so I'll either modify the design a bit, or put a contrasting piece of veneer down the middle.

My birthday shot by the other day, and my family bought me a couple of the Siminoff books (this one and that one). The bluegrass mandolin looks very tempting for my next choice, or will the archtop guitar win out - next decade - arrgh.

The moulds

While I had the camera I took a shot of the mould. I still need to work out how to fix them to the base.

The heads roughed out

I roughed out the heads this afternoon.

A large lump of sycamore

The sycamore for the heads was ordered from Craft Supplies. They were out of stock of the size I needed, so I got this giant lump. You can see the template for a size comparison. I have quite a lot of sawing ahead of me! In the front are the two tail pieces in the making.

Walnuts

As a slight aside, I thought that I'd show the walnuts we harvested today. They should be dry for Christmas...

Headstock Plan

This is a my plan for the heads - I will need two. I was inspired by a violin from Beethoven's era, but I had to modify the scroll to suit the dulcimer design.