The 27th Street Podcast is back after a brief hiatus. This episode features my conversation with Mike Chew in the Dogwood Banjo workshop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was in the Twin Cities to pick up Dogwood Banjos # 52, which Mike made for me. I… Read More
I visited Mike Chew at his workshop in Minneapolis the other day and picked up my new banjo. Mike put the finishing touches on the banjo while I was there, chatting with him about banjos and everything else. I love my new banjo!
I posted pictures of the new salad bowl banjo the other day. Here’s a demo so you can hear how it sounds.
The salad bowl banjo is complete (finally). It has taken me a very long time. You might say there has been an international conspiracy to prevent me from finishing. Others might say I’m a great procrastinator. In my defense, there was a broken and dislocated… Read More
A little progress on the salad bowl banjo… I think the neck is still a little clunkier than I’d like so over Christmas I’m going to take it down a bit. I may shorten the end piece some as well. Still to do – drill… Read More
Back to work on a project I should have completed in the summer. The magnolia bench project took up much of my attention in August and September and so progress on this banjo slowed right down. Today I completed the basic shaping of the neck.… Read More
Making good progress on the salad bowl banjo. The neck is roughly shaped out. I still have some finer shaping to do, then sanding. Once that is done, I can drill the peg holes, and measure and cut the bowl to enable the neck to… Read More
I glued the fingerboard to the neck blank for the salad bowl banjo this morning, and later glued the heel/dowel stick section to the neck. I hope to find a few hours tomorrow to get going on shaping the neck. I had planned to overlay… Read More
I’ve rough-cut the wood I’ll be using for the banjo neck. Next step is to laminate the pieces and then start the shaping. For the second photo I’ve laid out the pieces pre-shaping but you can imagine from the layout how the banjo will look… Read More
I was in a hardware store the other day, one of the old school small ones, not one of the giant warehouse stores that dominate the retail landscape today. We were standing at the cash when I noticed a bin full of these oddball metal… Read More
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