1/25/2013 - A Week of Progress - Chapter 6 1/2

One of Clint's barn swallows

This week, several things have happened that need to be reported.  Perhaps most important is that Clint's mother-of-pearl and abalone barn swallows have arrived from Viet Nam.  These are really spectacular and should look great against the ebony background of his fret board.
Monty brought his neck to work on Wednesday and I got to see it for the first time since he had cut out the peg head.  He had a bandsaw that I was unaware of.  He bought a new blade, tuned up the saw and went to work.  His cuts were precise and it looks great.
We had ordered a couple of tools that will be needed for mounting the rim to the neck, and these arrived this week -- an 18"-long 1/4" drill bit and a 5/8" hollow-core counterbore (I'd never heard of it either).  I'll include pictures of these when we actually get around to using them.

We took the rims down to a machine shop to get the edge trimmed off where the original part had notches cut into it.  We had heard from other Dynaflow banjo users that the sharp edge of the notches were unpleasant against the player's leg where the banjo rests.  Here's what one looks like now:

The cut-down turbine ring

Another development was the delivery of my spoons.  "Spoons?" you ask.  Here's the story.  It seems that when Jenes Cottrell was building the very early Buick-based banjos, he sometimes used bent-over spoons in lieu of the traditional hooks that hold the banjo head under tension.  I had indicated an interest in doing something like that, but it would have to be something special.  Then one day Clint sent me a link to a set of World War II era U.S. Navy teaspoons available on eBay.  As a Navy veteran, I couldn't resist putting in a bid.  So they have arrived, all 16 of them, to be bent and brazed to some threaded rod to become my personalized tension hooks.

Other news is that I had an opportunity to build a special jig that will enable us (I hope!) to accurately shape the base of the neck whare it fits against the outer surface of the rim.  I hope we get a chance to use it on Saturday.  If it works, I'll include pictures and a description in a later post.  'Til then...