A Forestful Of Dulcimer Trees
Good Morning, Y'all - Happy Friday!
It's been an awesome week for Folkcraft, thanks to all of you. I'm not talking "Boy, we sold a lot of dulcimers" awesome, though. I'm talking about the "Wow, that's a beautiful instrument and I know that (insert player's name here) is going to enjoy playing it!" kind of awesome. It's a good feeling to put a ton of effort into making an instrument, knowing that it will enrich someone's life. Thank you for letting us make your dulcimers!
News From Up North
Aly and I spent some time at the future Folkcraft workshop site last weekend. We'd had land for the shop cleared last winter, while the ground was hard enough to bring in heavy equipment. As the excavators and bulldozers and chainsaws were doing their work, I asked the tree-felling/site preparation/grading company to make a pile of the best of the felled tree trunks. I planned on turning the larger logs into firewood for this coming winter, which we would use to help heat our cabins. Most of the saved tree trunks are a foot or more in diameter, with a few as large as 36 inches in diameter. All of the saved trunks are 12 - or more - feet long.
The new workshop for Folkcraft.
We're hoping to begin moving tools up to the new shop by mid-November. Leaves are already changing in Northern Michigan. The trusses went up yesterday morning (10/1/25) and we're hoping for the metal roof some time next week. The shop is 80 feet wide and 40 feet deep.
We Have A Forestful Of Dulcimer Trees!
So, last weekend I met with a forestry person, and he helped me identify the various trees (both standing, and in our "felled-tree-trunk" piles) on our property. It turns out that our 80 acres of forest is chock full of dulcimer trees! We have about 30% maple trees, mostly of the sugar maple variety. We have about 25% white birch trees (a.k.a. paper birch). Thirty percent of our forest is a mix of softwoods, with a high concentration of Northern white cedar and white pine. The last 15% is a mix of a slew of other trees, including a fair amount of popple. (Yes, I spelled that correctly...)
Maple: I make a lot of dulcimers out of maple already, and I know it's an excellent wood for backs, sides, heads, and fretboards. Maple is pretty light in color, oftentimes pure white. It's hard and heavy, so it isn't my favorite wood for tops, but when paired with a Sitka spruce top, or a Western red cedar top, maple has a great tone.
Maple tree. Yummy sap, beautiful lumber.
Birch: I used to make a lot of dulcimers out of birch, but our local lumberyard stopped carrying that species. Birch is similar in hardness to black walnut, which is our number one dulcimer wood (black walnut is reasonably priced, looks great, and has a rich, warm tone). Birch is on the lighter end of the color spectrum. It isn't as white as maple, it has a bit of tans and browns to it, but it's not nearly as dark in color as walnut. I've used birch as both body wood (back and sides) and top wood. If I had to generalize, I would place the tone somewhere between Northern cherry and black walnut.
Paper birch trees.
Cedar: This is the surprise wood for our property. We have dense stands of Northern white cedar, mostly in the wetter areas of the property. These trees grow very slowly, and have a very tight growth ring pattern. I expect that this tree will be similar in tone to the Western red cedar we already use so much of - rich and warm. Our Northern white cedar will be a bit lighter in color than the Western red cedar. I can't wait to make a few dulcimers with Northern white cedar for the top wood.
Northern white cedar. Slow growing. Beautiful, soft lumber.
Popple: This is a new tree for me. The "popple" tree name encompasses two kinds of aspen - quaking and bigtooth, and also balsam poplar. I always pictured aspen trees as being from the Colorado rockies. I saw a lot of the quaking aspen variety when I backpacked the Colorado trail a few (ha!) years ago. It turns out that aspen trees grow in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, too. Popple lumber is very, very soft (like Western red cedar), so I'll experiment with using popple (aspen) as a dulcimer top wood.
Popple tree (Quaking aspen variety shown here).
Aly and I have sat outside at the future shop location, watching the wind rustle the leaves, and thought "that sounds like quaking aspen trees." We found out last weekend that it really WAS quaking aspen trees making that sound.
He's Excited. I'm Excited, Too.
The arborist (a.k.a. the forestry person) was very excited with the quality of our forest. Evidently our woods are healthy, and have a great mix of hardwoods and softwoods. And now that I know exactly what we have, I'm excited too. I'll mill some logs into boards this winter, and let them air dry in the new workshop. Stored indoors, in a dry, heated shop, the softwoods will be ready to use about a year after milling, and the hardwoods will be dry and stable after two years.
You would never guess I like trees, would you? I've planted dozens of trees at our current Folkcraft location in Indiana. At the new location, though, I can rely on the existing trees to reproduce on their own. It is fortuitous that so many of the trees at the new shop are appropriate for dulcimer making, though. I'll keep using (Indiana) black walnut, and keep using (Pennsylvania) Northern cherry, of course. But having some new wood species to offer will be great!
I've ranted about woods before, but I think this is a record, even for me. I hope you learned a bit, and that maybe some of my "tree appreciation" has rubbed off onto you.
Thanks for reading, everyone - have a great weekend. Go hug a tree!
Richard Ash - luthier-who-is-genuinely-excited-to-mill-up-some-lumber-for-Y'all's-new-dulcimers
FOLKCRAFT® DULCIMER PLAYER OF THE WEEK: DAN GEDDES
Folkcraft: How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
Dan: I’ve been playing the dulcimer since the early 1980s, including many years of playing and recording with the band Laughing Whitefish and other groups.
Folkcraft: When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
Dan: My very first dulcimer was a Folkcraft teardrop made from all cherry wood that I purchased around 1984. My latest is this six-string walnut/butternut with a bubinga fretboard overlay that just arrived a few weeks ago.
Folkcraft: Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
Dan: Recently, I’ve been enjoying playing dulcimer around Wisconsin with friends at the Green Apple Folk Music Society and at MOO (Make Our Own) Music Gatherings. My wife Cindy and I moved to Milwaukee from Appleton, WI, in retirement and...
CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF DAN'S STORY AND ABOUT OTHER FOLKCRAFT PLAYERS LIKE DAN & YOU!
FOLKCRAFT® PLAYERS - WE'D LOVE TO HEAR FROM MORE OF YOU!
No new Folkcraft Player to feature again this week, but we are still glad to re-feature Dan Geddes. Did you and Cindy have a good summer, Dan?
Who's Going To Write In Next? Keep The Family Growing?
It really is super-easy to join our online dulcimer community. Just three easy steps:
1) Send an email to: newsletter@folkcraft.com
2) With the answers to the four questions below
3) Attach a photo of yourself with your Folkcraft dulcimer(s)
We look forward to receiving your submission & featuring you in our newsletter real soon!
1. How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
2. When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
3. Where do you enjoy playing your dulcimer?
4. What other hobbies, or interests, do you have besides playing dulcimer?
WE'RE OFFERING A $25 FOLKCRAFT GIFT CARD TO ANYONE WHO ANSWERS THE FOUR EASY QUESTIONS LISTED ABOVE, AND SENDS IN A PHOTO (OF YOU WITH YOUR FOLKCRAFT DULCIMER). IT'S REALLY SO EASY TO DO!
This Week's Featured YouTube Video:
This week we will expand on our scale and move it. Take what Mandy's given you and practice it - and find even more places to play the scale. It's important to "hear" the notes. Once you do that, you will automatically know if you are hitting a note outside your scale. Have fun! Just click on the image below to listen & learn.
We have a slew (that's a fancy luthier word for "bunch") of videos for you to watch on our YouTube channel. Click here to see the full list. Be sure to comment on a video, and subscribe to the channel - either action helps us a LOT with YouTube's suggestion algorithms.
SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL FLATPICKING
by Aaron O'Rourke
"Flatpicking." Not that hard, right? You play your dulcimer with a flat pick. Got it. Done. Moving on...
Not so fast, there! When we talk about flatpicking, we're discussing a whole range of skills and techniques, from using (of course!) a pick, but also where to pick, how to pick, when to choose one string over another, how to hold the pick, how to hold the instrument, and so much more.
This is the perfect book for someone who already plays the mountain dulcimer, either as a fingerpicker (don't get me started again), or as a strummer. Once you get your head around the techniques that Aaron lays out for us here, you'll be able to create your own, unique style of play, mixing flatpicking with strumming and (if you're up for it) a bit of fingerpicking.
The more you know, the better you play. The better you play, the more fun it is. As usual, you can't go wrong with any of Aaron's books, and this is one of his very best. (49 pages)
