Toolerable: Shekere Build

Friday, May 15, 2026

Shekere Build - Part II

In the last post I documented how I obtained the gourd for my shekere (which is an African instrument that I intend to use with my salsa band), cleaned and prepared the outer surface.

Today I need to cut the top off, clean out the inside, dress the opening and hopefully get the first coat of finish on it.

Here are the tools I think I'll need:

Tools to finish the shekere after cleaning and preparing the outer surface.

I need painter's tape to prevent tear-out. I really have no idea if this is necessary, as I've never used a saw on a pumpkin before, but it is what I would do if it were wood. The rubber band is to mark a line in the place where I would like to cut it. And of course, my trusty Dick saw. I could have used any old hand saw, but I really do love writing about the Dick saw.

My apologies if you've never been to this blog before to hear about the infamous Dick saw. It is just a Gyokucho brand Japanese saw that was white-labeled for the Dictum tool company. For some reason they used to use Dick as the brand name of their own tools, to the delight of woodworkers in the English speaking world. Unfortunately I don't think they sell Dick tools anymore, only their tools with the Dictum name. It's probably my fault.

Anyway...

Here is what I did with the rubber band:

Using a rubber band for layout.

I tried to line up the rubber band with the widest part of the top bulb of this pumpkin. It doesn't have to be perfect. If I wasn't documenting this for posterity, I probably would skip this step and just eye-ball the cut. There is no need for it to be straight.

Once I was happy with the rubber band, I used a fine Sharpie to trace my line around the gourd.

I traced the line of the rubber band with a Sharpie.

This actually gave a relatively even line that completely circled the top bulb. If you do this, just take your time making the rubber band as straight and even as you can.

Work holding is not so easy with a giant gourd. I used some old rags to make a little nest for it on the balcony floor. This actually worked very well, as the gourd could be held securely, and rotated with ease.

Off with it's head!

The crosscut teeth on the Dick saw left a surface that only needed a little effort to clean up with sandpaper.

I kept the top of the gourd, because I had intended to do some chip carving to the outer edge of the gourd, and to somehow stain the inside of the neck black. The cutoff would have been ideal to practice on. In the end, I decided the gourd itself was plenty beautiful on it's own, and ornaments aren't really needed.

I wasn't sure what to expect inside of this gourd, as the lady in the YouTube video that I watched said it smelled disgusting, and cleaning out the mucky, damp, rotting mess inside was not a fun job.

This gourd was perfectly dried, and the inside smelled just like the outside, without the dirt.

It turns out I needed a kitchen spoon to help remove all the guts.

Here is where I was glad this pumpkin was so big. I'm not so sure how easy it would be to clean out the guts of a gourd if a hand couldn't be run inside to do the dirty work.

The inside is now empty-ish.

I experimented to do the rest of the cleanup of the gourd. Sandpaper worked well to even out the saw marks.

Using sandpaper with a block to erase the saw marks.

The inside of the neck was pretty rough, so I used a half-round rasp to do the dirty work, and finished it off with sandpaper. Finally, I used sandpaper to round over the edges a bit, as they were pretty sharp.

Using my beloved Logier rasp to clean out the inside of the neck.

The last thing I did with the gourd today is apply some finish. I am starting with some of my homemade boiled linseed oil (this stuff is so beautiful to work with), but the smelly store bought stuff would work just as well.