A Brief History





Back in 1978, I was attending college at Southwestern College in Winfield, Ks. The first fall I was there, I saw an ad for help at a local Bluegrass Festival. A college student, broke, chance to make extra cash? I was all over this, so I signed on. Not only did I get paid, but I received free tickets to the festival. So there I was, walking around on Saturday, when on one of the back stages was a mountain dulcimer workshop given by three attractive women. I still remember two of them, Cathy Barton and Mary Faith Rhodes. I sat back and watched. I also fell in love with the dulcimer. Here was a simple instrument that originated in the USA, the Appalachians in fact, and made with woods that I was very familiar with due to my families mid western logging business. I went to these ladies shows, watched the Dulcimer Championships. I spent my earnings on a very cheap dulcimer. I could not learn to play.

The strings were too high, it was poorly made. The next June, there was a June Jamboree segment of the fall festival. Once again, I worked it, this time I spent my earnings on a dulcimer kit. I built this with less than half the recommended tool list, I remember using a rock to pound in the frets and a stack of bricks for clamps. I ended up with an instrument that was more playable, and amazingly enough, better looking.

It was at this time I transferred to Iowa State. A few years into school there, I discovered that there was a wood shop available for student use. Wood from the family sawmill, and my first dulcimer was made. Again I looked at it, thought about it, saw my mistakes, a cherry board from Dad, and I built number two. It was an hourglass, all cherry, natural knotholes for the upper sound holes. My Mother still has this one, A-2. I made 5 dulcimers at Iowa State, except for #2, I have no idea where or who has them.

I ended up back at home next, worked for the family logging business, built a few more in the basement of my parents house. One of those was shipped back to Winfield, Ks. I also entered one in the county fair, it received a ribbon. Can't remember how many I built in Woodbine, but they were numbered W-6 on.

I ended up back in Winfield, Ks next. Here I decided to get serious about the dulcimer business. It was here that I also took first place in a major art show with one of my dulcimers. These dulcimers were numbered Wf-XX. Not sure the starting number, but when I moved I was in the 50's.

My next shop was in Wapello, Ia. Here I got busy. The last dulcimer built there was Wp-149. Formed a loose partnership with a singer/teacher named Pat Walke. She had me build a student model. These were very simple in shape and design, allowed me to use a lot of scrap lumber and also try out new and "exotic" woods such as mulberry and honey locust. It was here that I also branched out into other instruments. I built two 3/4 size guitars, 18 old-time banjos, 2 hammer dulcimers, some kalimbas, and assorted other things.

My next move was to Winfield, Iowa, where I built WFI-150 for my wife. That was over ten years ago, and I am ready to re-open my shop in Webster Groves, Mo.



Monday, January 16, 2023

The amazing persimmon!

 Persimmon, the American ebony. Here is the Wood Data Base description of persimmon wood. Very wide sapwood is a white to pale yellowish-brown. Color tends to darken with age. Very thin heartwood (usually less than 1″ wide) is dark brown to black, similar to ebony. (Persimmon is in the same genus—Diospyros—as true ebonies.) More from the Wood Data Base. Common Name(s): Persimmon, White Ebony

Scientific Name: Diospyros virginiana

Distribution: Eastern United States

Tree Size: 60-80 ft (18-24 m) tall, 1-2 ft (.3-.6 m) trunk diameter

Average Dried Weight: 52 lbs/ft3 (835 kg/m3)

Specific Gravity (Basic, 12% MC): .74, .83

Janka Hardness: 2,300 lbf (10,230 N)

Modulus of Rupture: 17,700 lbf/in2 (122.1 MPa)

Elastic Modulus: 2,010,000 lbf/in2 (13.86 GPa)

Crushing Strength: 9,170 lbf/in2 (63.2 MPa)

Shrinkage: Radial: 7.9%, Tangential: 11.2%, Volumetric: 19.1%, T/R Ratio: 1.4


And finally a picture of a typical board.


Now to my story. A good friend, Steve Cunningham, gave me some short logs from a tree his neighbor cut down.


The tree was in Webster Grove, Missouri.





As you can see, not only were they bigger the normal, but the heartwood was much wider.

Sliced the logs in half, lengthwise with a chainsaw, then started the slow proscess of quartersawing with the chainsaw.





From here the boards were placed in my shop attic, carefully stickered together to dry. Fast forward 18 months or so and some of the boards were brought down for resawing. The dulcimer sized boards.


And of course, once you have thin stock, you start a build.



Will add more to this story as the build progresses. I still have quite a bit to resaw into ukulele stock.

And it is done.



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