So Far, Blocks and Red Sawdust

So why is it that I start on a new project, and people come back with a litany of projects that are half-done, sitting somewhere in a closet around the house? Them’s fightin’ words, you know you’re just egging me on here…

Most of what’s been going on with the mandolin these days has been designing and strategizing, but there is visible progress as well.

As I noted earlier, I’m deviating from the traditional design that is part of the plans that I’ve got, and going with a more modern look. Those plans come in the form of a bunch of fold-out pages in the back of the book, which you are supposed to cut out and transfer to the wood as you go. I’ve decided that since I’m switching things around a bit anyways, maybe it would be good to transfer to a more stable medium for the templates, so I went with an acrylic sheet. Here’s the best way to tell the tale of what this thing’s supposed to look like:

These acrylic forms look pretty cool - maybe an all acrylic instrument later on?

All those lines etched in there will be guidelines to be used throughout the build, and the length of the headstock was an interesting exercise in design. I had an original idea and had laid out the headstock, then when the tuning heads arrived I laid them out to find that things were really too tight. A few adjustments and prototypes before I got to the final shape.

Then over to the wood. Like I noted earlier, I found a piece of Padauk at Lee Valley that I want to be the focal point of the instrument and chopped thing up into smaller bits. Fascinating to see the blood-red dust pour out of the table saw, I had to check more than once to confirm that I still had 10 digits (yes, still all there – so far). Here’s those bits so you can get an idea of the colour:

That's the fretboard in the lower right, along with the bridge, banding, and the strip down the middle of the neck

And here’s a bit of trivia about the wood from Ervin Somogyi, a very well respected luthier (or builder of musical instruments):

Padouk is a beautiful red hardwood which is sometimes used in lutherie. It’s proper name is Andaman padouk, as it grows only on the Andaman islands which lie halfway between India and Malaysia in the Indian Ocean. Padouk is, in fact, the islands’ only resource of any commercial interest. Years ago, when England had a worldwide empire, the British established a penal colony on these sweltering tropical islands, whose sole work was the logging and harvesting of this special wood. Commercial logging of padouk is no longer done with convict labor, but it’s hard for me to see a plank of this lovely material without thinking of the poor creatures who were once forced to sweat out their lives in cutting it.

I’d probably feel better if it was convicted felons that were sweating to bring this wood to me, particularly if it was that jerk that grabbed our beloved Doris the GPS and a few of my squash racquets (just the good ones) a few weeks ago…

Turns out that Jack Johnson has been to those islands, too: not for the wood, but for the surfing. Hang 10, Jack.

So I’ll be building up the neck over the next week or so, shaping and fretting the fretboard, and building a bridge. Then a trip out to the valley to get the maple for the back and sides and the spruce for the top.

Of course, though, we all know why people really start up projects like this – it’s to visit Lee Valley and buy hand tools that you otherwise would never have a use for:

Any excuse to visit Lee Valley Tools is a good excuse

And ’cause I was just asked, here’s an update for faithful readers: nope, still no wet willy…

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