Chapter 17: Happy birthday!

Ouch. Today is the second anniversary of this build blog. And I wanted to be done in eight months!

It has been a reasonably productive week.

First I have done the first pass of work on the 17 straight 'A' Keys. That way I can start doing the quiet work of fitting them in the evenings. Next job is the Tailpiece.

There needs to be at least a 96mm length between the Bridge and the Fine Tuner mounting points to allow for the Strings windings, so some carefull measuring has to be done. Also there needs to be a hook at the bottom of the Nyckelharpa's body.

An hour of setting up the band saw cutting an inch, resetting the band saw, cutting another inch, putting the blade back on the band saw and cutting some more followed. This is tough wood and my band saw would appear to be unequal to the challenge, or I need better instructions on how to set it up!

 Now I have cut the side profile on the band saw you can see what I mean about the hook.

After the second trip to the band saw it now looks much more like a Tailpiece. There is still a lot of shaping to do but at least I don't need to fight the band saw again!

The sacry thing here is the size of that hook. I'm told that each of the sixteen Strings is going to have a tension of about 10kg on them. 16 x 10kg = 160kg. That's the weight of two household washing machines! So, theoretically speaking, I need to be able to dangle two washing machines off that hook!


In honor of the second anniversary I thought I'd make a comparison.

This is how we began two years ago! All those bits of wood laid out so nicely.

And the comparison view today. There's just the three remaining 'A' keys, the Tangents, and the Sound Post to cut down (I can get two out of the supplied piece of wood), and the Strings to fit.

That's it for this time. I'm off to carry on the celebrations and we'll see how things go over the next few weeks!

Chapter 16: Where did I leave my keys?

As I am now getting ready to think about transporting my Nyckelharpa I have started working towards getting the outlines marked out.

The first move was to use a cello peg reamer to open out the straight drilled peg holes in the Neck and Reinforcement Plate. One small note for future plans: I had the holes drilled out to 8mm, but it would have saved me half an evening if I drilled them out to 10mm first. Hey-ho.

Ok, so I cheated. I bought ready made Cello Tuning Pegs because it was a lot cheaper than buying the tools to shape the wood blocks I have. I have also push fitted the two rows of Guitar Tuners for the Sympathetic Strings. This means I can now start working out what size transport case I need.

I have found my Keys! I took the Left Keyguide (top in the picture) off and worked my way along the one end of each of the ten 'C' Keys. The Keys were roughly cut down to shape on the Dremel saw and then I cut and sanded them down to fit the slots. They need to be loose enough to slide freely and account for any humidity that might cause them to swell and get stuck.

Then I started the same process at the other end. Exciting isn't it! Alright - maybe not. Once I had the first key done I had to test fit it properly of course!

In just a week I was able to get all ten 'C' keys fitted at the other end too. The finger ends need some tidying up especially 8 and 9 that are almost touching each other. It is traditional to make pretty shapes out of these and I'm not planning on skipping that although I might not get too over the top with it.

Now I have to start the whole process again with the twenty 'A' Keys, three of which present their own special challenge of crossing the two layers of keys. That said, I think I'm going to be concentrating on the Tailpiece for the next week and then I'll face the 'A's.

In other news; Last weekend I went to Halsway Manor again where Vicki Swan was hosting a Nyckelharpa Festival Weekend. This provided an oppertunity to meet like minded people and see a concert by the very talented Josefina Paulson and Torbjörn Näsbom. I think it might a while before I reach their level!

Speaking of which... Having played two notes on a Nyckelharpa in March, I now have a first lesson booked for 18th November, and I'm booked in for Vicki's Beginner's Weekend at Halsway Manor in March.

In the mean time let's see what the next week brings.