Dulcimer building

[Robert Worth]

I was working on seven pegheads today, two of bubinga, walnut, rosewood, sassafras, cherry and colored poplar. I have the rosewood complete and I have cutting to do on the rest. The fingerboards are milled, but all the fret slots need cut. I'm waiting on the fretwire to arrive.

 

I hvae two sets of the colored poplar for tops and backs done, one set of walnut that needs to be sanded and the cherry, sassafras, ambrosia maple needs to be resawn and glued. I'm not sure of all the combinations of what woods will go were but I'm going to match the rosewood fingerboard, sides and peghead with ambrosia maple top and back. Colored poplar fingerboard, sides and peghead with walnut top and back, Walnut fingerboard, sides and peghead with colored poplar top and back.

Resawed, glued and sanded more tops and backs, ambrosia maple, sassafras and cherry. Resawed sides out of walnut, cherry, poplar and sassafras.

[Robert Worth]

The spalted sassafras didn't make it.  It was too far rotted and it wasn't holding up.  As soon as I would try to fix one crack, I would see another. I kept trying to fix the cracks. I think there was more glue than wood. I guess it's better to find out now than to get it all together, put strings on it and have it fly apart.

[Ken Hulme]

Sassafras makes a great dulcimer.  Easy to work. Smells good.  Looks good.  What more could you ask?

[Robert Worth]

I got a piece of wood from a friend a few years ago. We thought it was spalted maple and I was going to make a dulcimer with it. I planed it and discovered that the grain looked like oak. I decided not to use it, thinking it was oak but byt it didn't seem heavy enough. There's alot of black lines running through it, I looked at it today and decided to go ahead and use it, even if it was oak. I started sawing it and there was a familiar perfumey smell. It's sassafras! It was a nice thing to find. I think it will turn out great.

[Robin Thompson]

Sounds as though you've got lots of fun ahead, Robert, playing with the combinations. :)

[Robert Worth]

It's a deep green. I'll post photos when it's finished.

[John C. Knopf]

Robert,

What color is your "colored" poplar?  I've seen green, brown, gold and purple areas on yellow poplar wood pieces, as well as some of just the plain, light color.  Some poplar could pass for walnut, if it's dark enough.