I got a good start making a mountain banjo back in spring, but I mostly stayed out of the workshop through the summer and and fall. Time to finish it off.

All the major components are now ready to go. The neck is carved and the three pieces that form the pot are cut, filed and sanded. I’ve cut a piece from a stove-pipe, which will be used to stretch the goat skin in the centre of the pot. There is still some work to do. I have to cut and soak the goatskin and sew it around a wire loop, and then stretch the skin and assemble the various parts, turning the banjo into a single unit. That’s not all. A banjo needs to have two nuts – one at the top of the neck, that cradles the strings before they wrap onto the violin pegs on the peghead. The other nut is for the 5th string. I’ll be using bone for both these parts. I have a couple banjo bridges in the workshop. I may use on of those or fashion a new one. The holes for the pegs need to be drilled and reamed, and the ebony violin pegs I use have to be shaped. That’s fairly straight-forward. Finally, I’ll need to fashion a tail-piece. I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to make that. Some people use wood and others use bone. Another option is to use a kitchen fork. I’m leaning toward the fork, which I’ve used on oil can banjos. It’s simple and elegant and fun.

Mountain banjos are typically fretless instruments, and this one will be as well. For strings, I’ll either use Nylgut, or fishing line or light gauge steel banjo strings.