Shekere Build - Part III

In the last post I left off having applied a bit of shellac. I wound up putting on about 10 or 12 coats, because that is all of the leftover shellac that was in a bottle I found. Today I gave it a bit of light sanding with a gray 3M scrubbing pad, and finished it off with a coat of pure tung oil (the good stuff, not the Home Depot version).

Lots of thin coats of shellac topped with a coat of oil.

It turns out my trombone stand is a perfect holder for this job.

If you are wondering how I did this, I made an applicator out of an old t-shirt. The trick is to keep as many wrinkles out as possible.

My shellac applicator made from an old t-shirt.

I charged the applicator with shellac, and wiped it onto the gourd in very thin coats, using as long of swipes as I could. The gourd itself made this much easier, as it is by no means a reference-flat surface that will reflect like a mirror. The uneven surface of the gourd was very forgiving.

Shellac applied this way does not take long to dry to the touch. The first three or four coats went on one after the other, with some scrubbing with a gray scrubbie after it is dry enough. The other coats needed between five and 20 minutes of drying time in-between.

The more coats, the better it looks. I finally stopped when my bottle of shellac was empty.

I had intended to add some paste wax on top of the shellac, but I don't seem to have any, so I used some pure tung oil that I found in my fine finish stash.

If I were to do this again, I would not have used a super-clear version of shellac. This would have been a perfect project on which to use a much darker garnet shellac. No matter, this gourd looks very natural, which can be good.

Now that the finish of the gourd is done, it is time to get on with the interesting part: the bead netting. I had prepared a few days ago a triple strand of my 1mm leatherworking thread that I will use for this project. I loosely wrapped it around the neck of the gourd and tied it with a square knot. The rest of the lattice will be attached to this collar.

I unwisely decided to use white thread for the netting. According to the YouTube video I watched, I need a couple dozen lengths of this string sized to double-full arm-spans (approximately 3 meters, maybe a bit longer).

Instead of cutting all the lengths of string and then attaching them, I cut them one at a time, and attached them as I went.

The first net-string attached to the collar.

This worked very well, and had the advantage of not collecting piles of cut string waiting to be installed.

Fold the string in half, then attach to the collar like this.

I got a little less than half done when I ran out of string.

This is as far as I got.

I don't know what I was thinking. I have tons more black string and some other colors, too. I thought about using the black and alternating it with the white. That might look cool. 

In the end I decided to order more white thread, so further progress will have to wait for another day.

Stay tuned... I have a psychic feeling I don't have enough beads.

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.

The gourd carcass with finish on it.

I might put on another coat after it cures. Maybe not. And then a coat of shellac for protection and a bit of sheen. Then it will be ready for beads.

I think the bottom turned out where I added the epoxy. It's a natural product, so I don't mind.

Next time, I will hopefully be documenting how easy and smooth adding the beaded lattice net will be to build.

Shekere Build - Part I

Oh, my. 

I see it's been five years since I last posted to this blog.

Time flies.

I've not disappeared, but it is true I haven't been doing much woodworking. Instead, I've been using my spare time playing trombone with some salsa bands here in Munich. Lots of fun.

My perspective from a recent Salsa gig.

However, I think it's time for me to start building again. What better way than to make an instrument I'll use on stage? A shekere!

My new shekere and güiro.

I recently bought a second hand shekere from a local percussionist. The one I bought is mass-produced (but quality), and made from fiberglass, but I decided I needed to try to make my own using a gourd, which is what how this instrument is traditionally made.

I watched several videos on YouTube, and found this one by the Stanford Taiko channel to be the most helpful.

I started by searching online for dried gourds for sale, and surprisingly found a seller in Germany. I ordered from the largest category of gourd they sell, hoping one would arrive that is nearly as big as the fiberglass one from LP.

My new gourd.

I was very pleased when it arrived. It was even bigger than I had hoped.

The first step was to clean it up in the sink with a metal pot scrubber. This task did not smell very nice, and it was probably a good thing that I did this while The Frau was at work.

Cleaning the gourd in the kitchen sink.

After it was clean and dry, I used 120 and 180 grit sandpaper to finish the cleanup.

Clean and finish sanded to 180 grit.

Being a natural product, there were some defects in the base of the gourd. I'd describe it as tear out. I don't think it affects the integrity of the gourd, but it doesn't look so nice, and you can really feel it. 

Some natural defects.

I decided to do what I would do with wood that has such defects: I mixed up some West Systems epoxy, added a drop of some brown color that I had laying around, with the thought that I would sand it flush and all would be good.

Dried epoxy on the affected area.

My Crucible card scraper was great for rough removal of epoxy.

It doesn't look that great, but it is smooth and hopefully stronger.

I'm wondering if clear epoxy wouldn't have been a better choice. Only time will tell. 

Braiding some string for the collar.

Next I thought it was time to start thinking about the net and the beads. I am going to use some 1mm polyester thread that I use for leatherwork for the net. I thought the collar on the top and on the bottom should be a bit thicker, so instead of using para-cord, I decided to braid three different colored strings for these parts. I don't see why this won't work just fine, and the contrasting colors are the exact color scheme as the beads.

I'll use these plastic 8mm beads.

Salsa Roja is the name of my salsa band, so there has to be some red in this gourd. I'll add black and some fake pearls for interest.

Next I have to saw off the top of the gourd, clean out the inside, add some finish to the gourd, and create the bead lattice. 

It's a big gourd, I hope 1800 beads are enough.

Stay tuned....