More Scrap-Pile Ukes (IW#'s 116 - 119)

I have written a couple of times about my scrap-pile ukulele project.  This has become a big part of my practice, including being a workshop that i have given now at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and am giving again this coming summer at Pocosin Arts School of Fine Crafts.  Here are four more.  I had to get some of these in the mail ('tis the season), so did not take the time to photograph them individually or make videos.  There are a couple of interesting stories, though.

First off, the instrument in the photo above that is in the front on the left is number 119.  It is all chestnut from piano wood.  Plays well, sounds pretty good. I dig working with chestnut because (a) it is super rare (I wrote about it here, in what I am now realizing was more than ten years ago.  Holy cow.  Also good reading here.) and (b) the chestnut bends pretty well for the tight little curves on a soprano uke.

The other three are American black walnut.  Their story is also pretty amazing.  The 1938 John Alden-designed motor sailer TRADE WIND was brought in for restoration a few years ago, and a friend of mine was working at the boatyard that did the work.  He salvaged a few of the walnut panels (you can see a shot of the salon where they were here.   Pretty nice work, don't you think?) and this summer when I was in Maine on another project was kind enough to give them to me.  More on that project later.  My friend is one of the owners of Clark and Eisele Traditional Boatbuilding, they do amazing work on wooden boats.

This black walnut was gorgeous.  Using two of the panels I was able to make three ukes, a tenor and two sopranos.  They sound great, and they look fantastic.  Some of the walnut had a flame to it, and it is just breathtaking.

This scrap-pile project is eye-opening in so many ways, not least that it continues to underscore what I keep telling my students:  It isn't what you have, it's what you do with it.  I have a couple of dozen instruments out in the world at this point, all of which came from otherwise unusable scrap lumber in my shop.  Along the way, I have also used this particular sub-project to teach several people how to make instruments for themselves, and even to do simple woodworking where they never had before.  Good stuff.