Let's Go Lumber Shopping
Good Morning, Y'all - Happy Friday!
Just A Reminder
We won't be open Thursday or Friday of next week - no newsletter next week, either. Our staff is taking off both days for the Thanksgiving holiday. We'll be back to normal business hours the following Monday morning - December 2, 2024.
In The Shop This Week?
Lots of shopping for lumber, it seems like. Whenever we build a dulcimer, our stock of wood - walnut, cherry, mahogany, rosewood, ebony, etc. - gets depleted just a bit. Over the course of a few weeks, we can use up a lot of the more common parts - walnut especially - and it all needs to be replaced.
Where We Get Our Walnut
For walnut, I have a couple of local (within a few hours of driving) suppliers. I can make a phone call, and a week later, have some planks of wood show up in our parking lot. For a "modest" fee, of course!
Typical 9' - 10' long, 5" to 9" wide, and 2" thick planks of black walnut
Our walnut suppliers are both good about getting us quality planks. We specify 2" thickness, and ask for "as wide and as long as possible." For black walnut, this is often 6 inches wide by 9 or 10 feet long. Every once in a while we'll get lucky, and get a nice wide board with minimal knots. We can use nearly ALL of a knot-free board and have minimal waste. (We don't get discounts on the cracked/knotty/split/warped wood, so we're happy to have the occasional perfect plank of lumber!)
Here's the "gem" of yesterday's walnut order:
11-feet-long, just one area with a couple of knots. Nice, tight grain, and no warping/cupping/splitting. It's 18-inches-wide, which is nearly unheard of for walnut these days.
But walnut is pretty simple. I call a supplier, pay for an order, it gets delivered in a few days. Just like ordering groceries at Walmart, this is a normal, straightforward transaction.
Rosewood? Ugh.
We have a couple of amazing suppliers these days - both of them are located in India. (All of the rosewood we use is "East Indian Rosewood") Every few weeks, I'll get an email, or a message via (of all things!) Facebook Messenger, from one of my suppliers. Earlier this week, I received a set of photos from "my guy" in India. He had just gotten in a new batch of rosewood and was looking for a buyer.
Since he is hoping to sell to an American (or maybe UK) instrument builder, he'd marked the dimensions on each board with inch units, not millimeter units. (although my ebony suppliers insist on using millimeters!)
In the photo above are the three planks of rosewood that I bought on Monday. I'm writing this blog on Wednesday, and we'll probably have the rosewood in our shop before the newsletter is sent out on Friday morning. I ordered half-a-dozen chunks of rosewood this week, and we'll resaw (cut to thinner parts) them this weekend, and then let them sit and dry for six months - at least - before we can make dulcimers from the pieces.
Folkcraft's Indoor Lumberyard
We have shelves of exotic woods in the back of our shop, drying. As we make instruments from the oldest material, we slice and buy more lumber, and start the drying process all over again.
In the picture above, you can see stacked ebony fretboards-to-be on the lowest shelf, with rosewood boards on the three shelves above the ebony.
Rosewood tops/backs and sides, with "stickers" (spacers) between each piece. Look closely, you can see a fan behind the stack on the right.
We put our resawn woods in stacks, with a "sticker" between each piece. The stickers allow for good air movement, so that the wood dries evenly. There's a fan on each shelf, to create plenty of air motion, so the wood dries without warping.
Most of our lumber comes to us "kiln dried," which means that the lumber mill (in the USA, generally) has pre-dried the wood for us. But the woods that we import, mostly rosewood and ebony, come to us soaking wet. It is wrapped in plastic, or coated with a thick layer of wax, so that it doesn't dry out and crack during shipping. The walnut we bought last week? After it acclimates to our shop humidity and temperature - typically just a few weeks - it'll be ready to use. Ebony and rosewood take six months, or more, before we can make an instrument.
But enough about drying planks of wood and where we get our lumber. How about making some music with those shiny dulcimers Y'all have? Maybe from this Shelley Stevens book?
This book is on sale this week for $3.99. I have TOO MANY of them on the shelf.
With classics like "Bill Bailey" and "Down Yonder," you can't go wrong. This book would be a NICE book for Christmas gifts for your dulcimer club friends. (20 people in your group? That's less than $80 for each of them to have their own copy!) Something to think about, at least!
Thanks for reading, Y'all - Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Richard Ash - luthier-who-messages-back-and-forth-with-his-rosewood-guy-in-the-middle-of-the-night-so-you-can-have-rosewood-dulcimers-on-your-laps
FOLKCRAFT® DULCIMER PLAYER OF THE WEEK: JACQUIE CARAVELLO
Folkcraft: How long have you been playing the dulcimer?
Jacquie: I started playing about 12 years ago, but life got in the way. Then, during the pandemic, I dusted off my old dulcimer and decided to get serious about it.
Folkcraft: When did you get your first Folkcraft dulcimer?
Jacquie: Three years ago I ordered my first Folkcraft in walnut with a butternut top, ebony fretboard and 25" VSL. A couple of years ago my husband made me a walnut chromatic dulcimer from a Folkcraft kit. He has since made 15 more dulcimers and learned to play!
Jacquie: I play weekly with our group Sugar River Dulcimers at the local library. I also enjoy playing at home, at church, at senior living facilities and especially outside.
Folkcraft: What other hobbies, or interests, do you have besides playing the dulcimer?
Jacquie: I also enjoy camping, road trips, gathering with friends and spending time with our critters (horses, mule, and that goofy guy in the photo).
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT MORE FOLKCRAFT PLAYERS LIKE JACQUIE & YOU!
HELLO FOLKCRAFT® PLAYERS - COME JOIN THE FAMILY
We are delighted to welcome Jacquie Caravello to our online global dulcimer community today!
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 hearing from you and 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?
FOR JUST A LITTLE WHILE LONGER 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)
This Week's Featured YouTube Video:
This week, Mandy will show you a melody-line version of "Silent Night." Try to sight read it by playing it back several times, pausing it, and playing through short sections. Have fun! Just click on the image below to watch.
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.
HUGO'S SING-A-LONG DULCIMER CHRISTMAS SONGBOOK
by Mike Anderson & Hugo Kringle
This songbook is a must-have for Christmas music fans and dulcimer players! Mike Anderson has arranged all the classic and beloved Christmas songs, plus an array of unique children's songs for any instrument that can play chords.
All songs are presented in lead sheet format with lyrics and chord symbols. Make your Christmas season memorable with Mike Anderson's "Hugo's Sing-A-Long Dulcimer Christmas Songbook." (30 pages)
This book is published by Fingers Of Steel, and is made available here as an authorized, licensed download.
SONGS INCLUDED:
For Auld Lang Syne • Away In A Manger • The Big Red Sleigh • Deck The Hall • Eight Little Reindeer • Here We Come A Caroling • Jingle Bells • Jolly Old St. Nicholas • Joy To The World • Over The River And Through The Wood • Silent Night • This Christmas • Up On The Housetop