Winter Build Off, Underhill Upright

[Crawforde]

This started as a scratch build in the summer, but the weather, wandering dwarves, a fool of a Took, and some orcs interfered with my progress so here it is in the winter.
the idea is a half-sized upright bass, small enough to be played horizontally by oversized people. Hopefully when I’m done it would not look out of place behind the flautist or fiddle player at The Prancing Pony on open stage night.
The little longbow was one of a few mini bows I cut about 20 years ago. It’s a nice piece of Osage orange split along the grain lines and will hopefully serve now as my first bass bow. The fingerboard will be carved from that bit of white oak that has been darkened with ammonia, and will be again once it’s carved. I have carved a couple practice tailpieces and a bridge but haven’t decided how the final will be shaped so those bits will evolve during the project.
Given the previous work this is probably a partial or assembly build and we can categorize it whatever way is approved by the authorities.

 

[Crawforde]

Seeing as I can only snatch short windows of work time and have to keep it clean for a while, I’m going to start on some smaller bits. Namely the bow, the fingerboard, more thinking about bridges and tailpieces,…
Mostly nerdy reading, checking the densities and elasticity of wood I have access too, …
I should be able to get two attempts at bows with an appropriate level of technology from the old kids Osage Longbow blank.
I also have a piece of white oak that’s extremely dense. Some of it is going to be the fingerboard, and I might try to make a bow out of that if the Osage fails.

 

[Crawforde]

And I have this German style frog, I feel conflicted about using something this modern, and pre made for this build, but If I make the stick itself and put it all together its still a build, and it’s not like I twisted up my own strings either so hopefully the nerd enforcement crew will give me a pass.
This ebony and abalone will look cool on a white oak stick with black hair.
that red elm burl was saved from my firewood in the same year I cut the Osage tree, I’m hoping part of it can serve as

a frog for an Osage bow.

 

[Crawforde]

I got a little bit done today.
Look at the difference in the color of the Osage between wood shaped and exposed in 1999, and the last week of 2022.

 

[Mickey666]

Osage orange is some beautiful wood, and tougher than a $2 steak.
They use to make fence posts out of it, tried to burn one once, it burned for 3 days and then just went out. Still too hard to break.
I

 

[Crawforde]

I used to make archery bows from it. the tree that this piece came from split out nicely and provided a few staves. Two became walking sticks, one made a short longbow that won a 3D archery tournament as well as quite a few deer back when I still hunted.
I made another that I traded to a bamboo rod maker. He made me a sweet little 3wt with a walnut reel seat, the walnut came from a storm fall log I cut too.
I miss being around other people who make stuff. TB and Luthiers Corner are great, but I miss the local trading of tips and material.

 

[Crawforde]

A little more progress today on the bow attempts. I really wish I knew what I was doing. When making bows I acquired a feel for the flex and strength needed for the poundage/ purpose of what I was making. it’s mostly a learn by failure thing.
I’ve only ever handled on bass bow, and that was many years ago.
so on these I’m just taking material away, and testing the flex, looking for a nice even bend and about triple the strength of my daughter’s old violin bow. Parameters can be read, I can look at specs and examples, but that’s different from doing.
the design of the two Osage bow based bows will be something a little more “primitive” than baroque, and their origin will be apparent. the oak one will have a more modern set up.
Molly has opinions and seems to approve, hopefully I can get some work on the neck and scroll this afternoon

 

[Mickey666]

The Osage ones look extremely appropriate for something hand made in a slightly different time and place. Very nice start!

 

[Crawforde]

Still making shavings
Awesome day out under the tarp.

 

[RichterScale]

I really wish I knew what I was doing

It's never stopped me before.

 

[Crawforde]

A little progress today. Mostly on the bows.
And a little oops. Now everything has built in mojo and has my DNA in it for identification purposes.

 

[RichterScale]

In 12k years, roughly 5-6k yrs after humanity rebounds from the next global cataclysm, archeologists will assume it was some type of implement for hunting small game.
Or a murder weapon.

 

[Reedt2000]

In 12k years, roughly 5-6k yrs after humanity rebounds from the next global cataclysm, archeologists will assume it was some type of implement for hunting small game.
Or a murder weapon.

It does have an atlatl vibe

 

[RichterScale]

atlatl

That's fun to say

 

[Crawforde]

I tried to use an atlatl once. A dude was showing one he made off at an archery shoot.
it looked easy.
I’m not sure how humanity survived that invention. I almost killed someone or won a Darwin Award when I threw the javelin/ spear thing straight up and couldn’t tell where it was, or where it was coming down.

 

[Crawforde]

The white oak bow is roughed in, tension adjusting hole drilled and I did some heat treatment to set the camber. Working with flames is fun.
After work I will have a go at it with the scraper and get it to its final size and shape. it needs a frog too. I have a bit of red oak with a nice figure in it that I hope willl work

 

[Crawforde]

I never got back to the oak bow, but I did look at the Osage bits. One was a bit too thin and flexible for a bass so I broke out the Brandywine carbon fiber reinforcement protocol to increase the strength and mass a bit. Fitting, as these were originally archery bow limbs

of course in this build-off the carbon fiber comes from deer back sinews (harvested in the 1990s when I used to hunt deer with my bows, uhh I mean picked up from the butcher in Bree) the fibers will be laid up with hide glue. First they are pounded out to separate the fibers, soaked in water, then squeezed out and mixed with hot glue and spread on the wood.
Here is the first coat. I’ll trim it smooth tomorrow or the next day and lay another layer on.
I probably wont leave them on the whole thing, and may try to dye some, and wrap the handle area to see how that looks and feels.

 

[Mickey666]

Very kool hand work

 

[Reedt2000]

Agreed, very cool stuff I know naught about so I'm excited to watch

 

[Crawforde]

Between yesterday afternoon and a hour or so today I got a bit of work in on the white oak bow, changed the neck angle iso the bridge will be high enough to bow, and did a little shaping/ carving on the neck.
Made a loaf of sourdough bread too