Folk Harp

09/04/2024

After years in the shop, mind and soul on tools trees, the old luthier slowly morphs into the work itself where you can hardly distinguish where the luthier ends and the harp begins.

"L'homme c'est rien—l'oeuvre c'est tout"

[Sherlock Holmes from Doyle's "The Redhead League"]

08/26/2024

After a summer of work in the shop, the first of nine harps in this run has come off the business end of the workbench.

The Ancient Enigma. 25 brass strings from C below middle C to high F. Cherry wood. Cooling its heels beside the forever road ready to give way to its wanderlust.

08/18/2024

The mysterious Baptism of Mineral Spirits.

08/08/2024

The rough woodwork on this summer's four Enigma Harps had come to an end and they were to be taken from the more humid air of the shop to the very dry storage area for some days to make sure the humidity was even before the fine finishing. Having done this I fell into the Luthier's Dream where I saw the Four Pale Enigmas of the Harpocalypse appearing over the horizon!

"And I heard a voice which said, 'Come and see'
And behold there came forth a harp and its name was Inharmonicity and it had the power to make the harps appear out of tune.

"And another harp came forth and its name was String Buzz and it rasped against the nails of many"

"And another harp came forth and its name was Slipping Pin and it had the power to inflict despair on the player."

"Then the voice said "Come and see" and I beheld a Pale Enigma. Unfinished and forboding. And its name was ..... Moonbat!"

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I awoke in a muck sweat and then realized it was only a dream....
... or was it?

06/18/2024

Our route home yesterday took us past an Ace Hardware. I needed a new file for squaring the edges of the card scrapers. Not that I wore out the last 3, just don't know where they are.

There are some junk files on the market. So I was really hoping Ace was carrying Nicholson files.

Hot morning and so I was lively to get into the store before sweating out. I'd just come from the ophthalmologist and the haste and blurry vision made me stop and look around. Two people, a man and a woman, about my age were sitting in their Ace vests by the desk. On eye contact I asked:

"Files?"

"Chainsaw?"

"No, bastard."

The man looked up wide-eyed wondering if he ought to take offense of flee but the woman was entirely nonplussed and simply said "Aisle 7"

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Back in the van I was asked "Why is it called a bastard file?"

Ho! In heraldry a line on the shield that goes from the bearer's upper right to the lower left is called the "Bend Dexter" [right band] and if it goes from the bearer's left to the lower right, it is called the "Bend Sinister" [left band]. In the French terminology the band is called a 'barre' so the slanted stripe is a "Barre Sinister".

As you can see, the grooves of the bastard file are slanted like the bands of a heraldic shield. And it seems "Barre Sinister" corrupted into "bastard."

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Maybe. No record of it and no way to know for sure. If it comes to betting the farm on it, the answer would be, "just don't know."

And here is the wisdom of the ages, no surpise one finds such things in a luthier shop. No matter how we might feel the impetus to know, to fall for the posit that we have to decide things one way or the other, no matter how much we might be adjured to believe one thing or the other ..... most of time we just don't know.

At first we might be frightened by how little it is possible for us to actually 'know.' But we eventually get used to it. And the peaceable among us eventually come to revel in it!

06/05/2024

"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do......."

11/08/2023

The idea, the commitment, was to always play a different tune on each harp demo and thus it would push me to learn more tunes. Alas, there are harps wanting finished and I'm not getting any more talented. So I cobbled my way through this tune just as a demo, so don't be critical.

For those whose whittles and drink are not old Celtic music, this tune is by the celebrated Irish harper who lived 1670 - 1738. He became a harper when he was blinded by smallpox at the age of 18 and few other lines of work were open to him. He spent his life traveling about Ireland composing tunes for patrons.

When he was young and attending school, he became hopelessly enamored with the schoolmaster's daughter. Their separate social stations and his blindness ended any hope of advancing his cause but O'Carolan never forgot her. And so the story goes that when the ferry he was on touched the far bank of the river, he leapt down and turned back extending his hand to help any women disembark. Upon closing his hand over that of of the last passenger he exclaimed, "Bless me, it's the hand of Bridget Cruise!"

And he wrote this tune for her.

Demo of Ancient Enigma wire strung harp.

09/28/2023

It's that mystical time of the year where luthiers face the dreaded "Baptism of Mineral Spirits." That Davy Jones moment when the newly completed harp is bathed in white spirit which reveals every hidden defect in the woodwork.

"Do you feah dust?
Do you feah the dark end grain?
All your miscuts laid bare?
All your glue spots......p'punished!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5NWuumGJ2I

08/04/2023

My instruments are plain. It is the result of a tragic love affair in my misspent youth with a .... 1915 Gibson A4 mandolin. It was dark, completely plain, not even any purfling. No scroll points, no f-holes, just a plain oval sound hole and a very discrete fleur-de-lis and the words "The Gibson" in mother of pearl on the headstock. I was utterly charmed by such things back then, lilies that brooked no gilding. Alas, the story of our parting is too painful to recount. But the effect lives on in the instruments that I make, function dictates form and form seeks no embellishment.

But during the final work on an Ancient Celtic harp, I was not pleased with the grain at the top of the pillar. It appeared to be entirely superficial and cosmetic, but I wasn't 200% sure. So rather than sac the pillar, I cut out a cartouche and the wood was sound and pretty just below the surface. But what to do with recess?

Younger Daughter had been doing some magnificent miniature work in clear resin castings. So I asked her to fill in the cartouche. This is the result.

Слава Україні!

07/20/2023

Yes, indeed! Deep in the night where magical harps are wrought by otherworldly craftsmen, the Luthier Gnome examines the sound holes of a wire strung harp.

06/22/2023

It says that King David gathered the materials for the temple but was not allowed to build it since he was tainted with blood being a man of war. So his son Solomon (whose name means "peaceful") was to build it. "Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name." The logic of that escapes me but, hey, the Fellow works in mysterious ways I am told.

And so major projects seem to always have their King David stage where the materials are gathered and prepared and then the King Solomon stage where the thing is made.

Here at the solstice it seem appropriate that the King David stage of this run of harps is done (more or less). The boards analyzed, rough shapes cut, billets resawn, parts planed. "Thou has polluted the air with a great din and choking dust ...scattered debris is in thine wake and great mounds of parings."

Now the power tools will be put away and hand tools brought out and the shop will begin making harps.

05/31/2023

The Backwoods Wire Strung Harp:
(This very harp is available now)

Demo of Ancient Muse wire strung harp

04/29/2023

The legend has been researched by that celebrated cartoonist, Ray Barnes, and here is his first installment of -- The Tales of the (gasp!) Mad Harper.

The story of the Mad Harper of Cosby Tennessee is a story about all of us.

02/14/2023

Another one available.

02/13/2023

From out of the cold winter's mist, this is the first of a run of newly strung harps of cherry wood:

02/02/2023

The movie "The Red Violin" is to be highly recommended to those interested in historic musical instruments. It is one of Samuel Jackson's best efforts. The story centers around a violin made in the 1500's that appears and disappears in history and the people through the centuries who have possessed it.

It is of course fictional, but a little known fact is that it is based on a true story .... the story of "The Red Wire Strung Harp"

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This mysterious harp is made of Red Elm, an enigmatic and sometimes sinister wood. Most of you woodworkers are familiar with wood scales such as the Janka and Brinell scales. Ah, yes, but do you know about the lesser known Haint scale? It is a scale to reckon the wood's proclivity to be haunted. For example cherry wood is rated a 0.72 Haints, and black walnut is 1.05 Haints. But red elm is 13.6 Haints, one of the most haunt inclined woods available.

This harp is just a bit heavier than it's cherry and walnut counterparts. This may be due a difference in the density of the wood, or it may be due to being weighed down by the souls of unfortunate players who have been lured to posses it.
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This harp is presented merely as a curiosity. Please do not make an offer to buy it. The person in possession of it is bound by charms to accept the first reasonable offer.

10/15/2022

Today, October 15, is - Lá na Cruit. Harp Day!

Here is what I am doing today in celebration of International Harp Day

What are you doing, eh? Keep in mind that tonight is when the Great Harp rises out of the luthier shop and flies through the skies bringing tunes to all the good girls and boys.