Project Information
The soundboard is heart pine-formerly these boards were floorboards in the original kitchen of our ~100 year old house. Frame and bridges are hard maple, and the back is baltic birch plywood. The hammers are pear and walnut (or maybe that was dessert last night? No, definitely the hammers). The walnut came to me as a piece of firewood-I think this was a better use 
. The stand was thrown together from some cherry purchased from the big orange store.
I'm not sure what drove me to make this. I like the idea of making musical instruments-one of my first real woodworking projects was a tongue drum. I guess after the tongue drum, what I really wanted was something that you could really play a melody on, which I figured meant something with strings. I was hoping to go relatively easy-my skills are not up to a guitar or violin. I considered a lyre, but those have a pretty limited range. Thought about a harp, but that seemed a bit beyond my abilities as well. Somehow I happened onto this Smithsonian Institute pamphlet about making a hammered dulcimer, and then I was off to the races.
It was a challenge-the pinblocks in particular took some careful cutting. I think I used every major tool in my shop and wished I had a few more.
. The stand was thrown together from some cherry purchased from the big orange store.I'm not sure what drove me to make this. I like the idea of making musical instruments-one of my first real woodworking projects was a tongue drum. I guess after the tongue drum, what I really wanted was something that you could really play a melody on, which I figured meant something with strings. I was hoping to go relatively easy-my skills are not up to a guitar or violin. I considered a lyre, but those have a pretty limited range. Thought about a harp, but that seemed a bit beyond my abilities as well. Somehow I happened onto this Smithsonian Institute pamphlet about making a hammered dulcimer, and then I was off to the races.
It was a challenge-the pinblocks in particular took some careful cutting. I think I used every major tool in my shop and wished I had a few more.
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