Fired Up

Over a week ago we had a very unusual, for our Santa Cruz coastal community, large lightning storm. According to the weather service, we had over 11,000 lightning strikes. This was the remnants of a Pacific hurricane off the Baja Mexican coast. Unfortunately, there was no rain involved, and the storm only produced dry lightning. Dry lightning on dry forests and fields. The resulting 7000 fires have now consumed over 1.4 million acres. More than 120,000 people were evacuated in Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. At last count, over 500 homes and structures were lost, just in our county. Ash has fallen all over. (Notice my ash-covered Jeep in the photo.) Fortunately, we are far enough away that we were not threatened by the fires. But, added to the fires, we’ve had over five months of Covid-19 sheltering and mask wearing. Back in early July, Santa Cruz partially opened up, but that was short lived. More people tested positive, and things shut down again. Only a few restaurants and wineries with spaced outdoor seating have been able to keep partially open. This 2020 is turning out to be one hell of a year. Now, if we can just get through the Fall election.

Sigh… Enough of that…

Through it all, I’ve been fortunate to have a lot to do. My woodworking craft is advancing, and I’ve actually had seven Etsy sales, six of them large instruments.

New Work 

A few weeks ago, I finished carving a new dulcimer head and tailpiece for a resonator dulcimer I’d been planning to make before the pandemic locked us down. I purchased a 5 1/2 inch “paint lid” resonator and biscuit bridge from C.B. Gitty, and made a special dulcimer top the resonator would fit in. I just glued the top on, and I’m ready to sand it down and then add the fingerboard. This dulcimer has cocobolo top and back and figured maple sides. The head and tailpiece are walnut, and the fingerboard is maple laminated over pine. I still have binding to do then a lot of sanding.

Waiting in the wings is another teardrop dulcimer. This will be a regular dulcimer with no additional bells and whistles…

Another instrument I finished recently is my third Symphony. Again, I based this on a 12th century Spanish illuminated manuscript known as “Cantigas de Santa Maria”. This one is cherry, with maple tuning pegs, tangents, and handle. The one thing different with this Symphony is the hand-carved tagua nut head with the wheel handle coming out of his mouth.

It’s another lovely sounding instrument that harkens to the early medieval period. Picture monks sitting around chanting their offices in Latin while accompanying themselves on one of these instruments.

Before the Symphony, which was first created around the 1100s, was the Organistrum, which took two people to play. This was the first “hurdy gurdy-type instrument” and had a crank that turned a wheel. It predates the pipe organ and was used for the same function: to play notes to help everyone sing their offices in the same key.

Lesson time:

If you have read (or watched) Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael, you might have read or that the Benedictine monks always chant (and pray) during the following offices:

• Matins (during the night, at about 2 a.m.)
• Lauds or Dawn Prayer (at dawn, about 5 a.m., but earlier in summer, later in winter)
• Prime or Early Morning Prayer (First Hour, approximately 6 a.m.)
• Terce or Mid-Morning Prayer (Third Hour, approximately 9 a.m.)
• Sext or Midday Prayer (Sixth Hour, approximately 12 noon)
• None or Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Ninth Hour, approximately 3 p.m.)
• Vespers or Evening Prayer ("at the lighting of the lamps", about 6 p.m.)
• Compline or Night Prayer (before retiring, about 7 p.m.)

If you noticed, there was not much time in those days to do other work around the abbey grounds, barely two hours at a time before the bell rings for the next office.

End of lesson.

And now for something completely different. (Not Monty Python!)

I just started making a thumb piano, also known as a Mbira or Kalimba. I found a source for the flattened spring steel notes online and decided to order them. Many many years ago I purchased one of these at an arts festival I attended (long before I became a vendor at the same type of art festival), and have always loved the sound. Three years ago my wife went on a bus and cycling tour of Namibia. She brought back to me a primitive, but extremely lovely, hand-made Mbira, which also has a beautiful sound. Both of these inspired me to make one of my own. It is turning out to be quite a fun project.

I have the body made, and I’m making a top with a hand-carved quatrefoil sound hole similar to what I use on my psalteries and other instruments. The top and back are from a piece of redwood burl, and the frame is black walnut. All woods are salvaged.

Restorations

Since I don’t have any current customer instrument restorations, I’ve lately been working on restoring several of my own antique and vintage autoharps and zithers. Sometime later in the year, I’ll be re-opening my Vintage Etsy shop and put these up for sale. So far, I’ve restored three antique Zimmerman autoharps, all from the 1883-1899 time period. All three autoharps were made by Charles F. Zimmermann in his Dolgeville, New York plant.

The left and middle photos are both Zimmermann Model 2 3/4 autoharps. They have five chord bars. The left one is the earliest, from around 1885-86. It has a lovely stained natural wood (spruce) top. The middle autoharp is a few years newer (1887-88) and is all black. The top is also spruce, but painted black to match the sides and back. The right autoharp is the very familiar Model 73 with 12 chords. Even though Zimmermann’s Dolgeville Company closed when he died in 1889, the Oscar Schmidt Company restarted autoharp production with this same model. The Oscar Schmidt name is now owned by the Washburn Guitar Company, and Washburn is continuing the production of several Oscar Schmidt branded autoharp models, including the Model 73. This model has been around on and off for 140 years.

I’m now working on what is known as a “gizmo” harp. The label says it is a Chartola Grand, distributed by the Chartola Grand Company, which is actually made by the Menzenhauer/Schmidt Company and has four chords that have spring-loaded “thumpers” that snap on the chords to play them. This is the before photo. I’ve just started removing the strings and tuning pins. It does have a full set of strings that seem to be in decent condition, so as I remove them I put a piece of tape on them denoting what note and number it is. That way I’ll know exactly where each string goes when I restring the instrument. Also, the zither’s body has no cracks or failed glue joints. Just a nice cleaning and waxing will suffice.

Coming Up

Because our area received so much ash fallout from the fires, I have to take off my work boots and put on slippers every time I come in the house, and vice versa when I go out so as to keep the house clean. Squatting down to put on and tie my boots is a pain for this aging body. So, I decided to make a low bench to go just outside the door into the garage and my shop.

Eight or ten years ago, I acquired quite a bit of wood that came out of a barn in Hollister, California. The woods, several planks of them, are actually lovely pieces of teak, cocobolo, black acacia, and others. Nearly all the wood came from Gavilan College, and some had been sanded and partially finished. I’ve used quite a bit of it on furniture and instruments. What’s left are a few odds and ends that are fine for stools or benches.

I’m just getting ready to rip and surface a few pieces for my low bench project.

Out back in my studio, there’s still a lot of work to be done. I have several spoon blanks cut out and started, but I need to take a day or two to just sit down and carve. Several hanging spoon racks are done and need to be filled.

And then there’s that dulcimer I mentioned earlier… The top and back are cut out and ready for some sanding. I still have to rip and surface wood for the sides. Eventually…

As you can see, I’ve kept busy every day working on one piece after another. I still have quite a large wood stash that’ll probably last the rest of my life.

That’s it for now. In a month or two, I’ll give another report from the land of sawdust…