My friend Jamie and I are working together on two salad bowl banjos, one for each of us. Jamie started by turning the first bowl.

It’s going to be a pretty big pot – about 12 inches. He’s also fashioned a nice tailpiece from antler. Jamie dropped those elements over here the other day. I’m starting the neck this week. It’s going to be ash with an ebony fingerboard. I also have the piece of wood to the left in the photo. I’m not sure what it is. It comes from the offcuts bin at Exotic Woods in Burlington Ontario. I bought it because I thought it would be good for making banjo bridges. Now I’m thinking I might also face the peg-head with this too.

The construction will be similar to a gourd banjo. The neck will have a “dowel stick” that will extend through the salad bowl. Shaping the neck is a good deal of work but but fairly straightforward as it is not highly intricate. The challenge I think will be getting the holes in the salad bowl just right so the neck fits in at exactly the correct angle. The nut will be bone (I have some for the purpose) and the pegs will be ebony violin pegs. I have a bunch of those on hand.

The head of the banjo will be goat skin. It will be stretched over the bowl in a similar manner to gourd banjos, using upholstery nails. I sourced the ones we want today and will pick them up this week.

We don’t know if the bowl will need sound holes or not. I suspect the answer is likely yes, but we don’t have to commit to them just yet. First there is lots of work to do on the neck. We also have to decide on a peg-head shape. That decision will have to happen soon.

I’ll post progress reports as this project comes together.