Very cool Steve, looks like I have some presents in mind for a couple of my friends that are musicians!
That scrollsaw looks like the old Craftsman I used to have! Gave it to on old tool buff after the crank wore out, last I saw of it he had it working again!
Really cool, Steve! I loved to see you working on that scroll saw! Did you scroll the peace sign in the pick too? That would really be cool to do! (I would put a cat in my pick!) And you are going to think I am really stupid but I never thought of using double sided tape and a thicker board to get maximum thinness out of a planer. In the past, when it got to the max, that was it. I saw you do that and was (once again) surprised by my own stupidity (limitations). Great song. Great project. Awesome video. Your editing is getting fancier and fancier! Pretty soon you are going to start charging us to watch them like MGM!
Sheila: Thanks for your comments. I really like that peace sign pick, but my son bought it. It's plastic. But it's funny you mentioned making it, because this whole project started out because I wanted to see if I could make a wood pick. It just evolved into the holder. I'd still like to try my hand at making a pick.
Can't take credit for the carpet tape idea. I'm pretty sure I learned about that from a posting on LJ some time ago. I was the same as you: once it got to it's thinnest, I quit. But how cool to make wood super thin! Opens up a new world of possibilities.
I tried several times as a teenager to make wood picks. When I got the wood thin enough to flex a little, as guitar picks need to do, the tip would break off. It has to be thin, flexible, and strong enough not to break. I have no idea what wood I used, I'd guess it was Pine, Oak, Cottonwood or Willow. I don't recall ever having any other woods in our shop.
Give it a shot. Someone on here should be able to recommend a strong flexible wood.
Dan - maybe if you used a tighter-grained wood such as maple it would hold up well and be a better choice for making a pick. The woods you mentioned are quite a bit softer and perhaps that is why you had such a hard time getting them to hold up.
some of my highschool kids have attempted making guitar picks. They would spend weeks hand sanding a 1inch piece thin enough to be picks but heaven forbid I make them finish sand their bookshelfs.
one of their favorites for durability was taking plywood and sanding down so that you had a little bit of two different layers. It gave the cross grain strength that you need to play.
Nice project Steve, Gunna have to make some of those.
A local wood dealer i know makes guitar picks (thousands) and sells them at music festivals, he uses local hardwoods and some exotics. Apparently the shape and size of the pick affects the sound, and they cant have any flat spots. That's a lot of sanded fingers.
Dan: Do guitar picks have to be flexible? Not being a player myself, I'm not sure. Doesn't Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top use a quarter instead of a pick? Maybe I'm thinking of someone else.
Saxophone and clarinet reeds are made from bamboo. They are shaved paper thin at the tip. Perhaps this would be a good place to start for a guitar pick.
Flexabiltity of guitar picks depend on the sound you're going after. I always used a banjo pick, which was metal and could be curved to fit your finger. I used these becasue arthritis prevented me from holding a flexabile pick. It was too darned thin.
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