Splitting logs into boards

[cynff]

Hi,
I'm trying to build a hand drum frame from scratch. I am following the instructions in a book call 'How to Make Drums Tomtoms and Rattles' by Bernard Sterling Mason.

To start with the book instructs to find White Cedar, suggesting that this type of wood is preferable to any other wood due to it's "lightness, softness, straightnesss of grain and bending capacity." White Cedar is very expensive in the U.K. therefore will need to seek an alternative. The book suggests "black ash, basswood, tulip, poplar or any other soft woods" as altenatives.

I tried making my job simpler by purchasing some ash from a wood merchant. I have since discovered my newbie error.. Dried wood cannot be bent into circle after soaking in water.

Therefore I have a few questions:

Can you suggest a suitable alternative to White Cedar, that is available in the U.K., can be sourced as a greenwood log, and is not too expensive?

I will be splitting the log to form boards then making the boards thinner and shaping using a Mocotaugan Crook Knife.

 

[eddieb]

Im just throwing my suggestion but please feel free to ignore because i don't know the true answer to your question; however, if i were you I would look at Ash and Maples as these are woods that my guitars are made from so i know theyre used in musical instruments just like cedar is too.

 

[Pattree]

If this is your first drum then I’ll make a highly unpopular suggestion:

Make a couple out of 6mm ply before you spend money and effort on more expensive woods.

I have a friend who used to make very beautiful parade drums. Made of painted marine ply with plastic skins and nylon ropes, The East End Earls would keep going when everyone else stopped in the rain.

You will learn many of the skills and be far more likely to produce a playable instrument for your first effort.

 

[Dave Budd]

rather than trying to bend soaked ash, try steaming it instead. Kiln dried ash will bend in a circle if its full of hot steam ;-) heck you can tie a 30x6mm strip in a knot easily enough!

there is a technique to it still, you have to exercise the wood gently rather than just bending full on in one movement and if you have cut across the grain of a sawn board it will need to be thicker (though you can still shave it off after it has dried)

 

[slimshady]

Hi, lots of youtube's to look at.
Highly rated is Cape Falcon Kayak. He prefers to use very green Oak (USA based).
As per Mr Budd's suggestion, Ash is popular for steam bending. Luckily it's winter so should be able to source some decent freshly felled oak or ash from a friendly tree surgeon.
Obviously need a bandsaw or tablesaw to process into suitable size.

Alex.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Are you familiar with the https://www.wood-database.com/wood-filter/ ?

Basswood = lime wood
Tulip poplar (not two different trees as suggested), aka yellow poplar. You could look at Black poplar. Poplar is sold as a utility type wood, rather plain, rather soft, fast growing. Not particularly known for straight splits though

Interesting debate to have with oneself, wanting to build a traditional North American native drum with basic hand tools, using wood available in the UK.

What size log are you thinking you will be splitting down? What tools do you have? Done much long log splitting? You have a free a riving break?

My experience splitting bow staves from ash, and other stuff has been that there is really an optimal moisture content to get the splits as straight as they will go. Cut in May or June, trying to split ash was like trying to split vulcanised rubber! Cut in October or November and left for a month and it split beautifully. Seasoned for longer and trying to split the following summer and it was hard and a right bugger to split.

 

[HillBill]

Willow is the answer you're looking for. Ash is not soft, not even close. While you can shape it, the resonance will be very different to a 'soft' wood. Ash is very hard. All woods can be steam bent. Try some willow. Birch is ok too.

 

[GreyCat]

If this is your first drum then I’ll make a highly unpopular suggestion:

Make a couple out of 6mm ply before you spend money and effort on more expensive woods.

I have a friend who used to make very beautiful parade drums. Made of painted marine ply with plastic skins and nylon ropes, The East End Earls would keep going when everyone else stopped in the rain.

You will learn many of the skills and be far more likely to produce a playable instrument for your first effort.

That's a good point.

I've had a couple of "shaman" type drums to play with over the years. The "authentic" one with a natural skin was a beautiful nightmare, needed to sit by a fire before it could be played.... but then eventually the wood frame broke from over-tension as it got too dry.

I replaced it with a Remo drum look alike. Synthetic skin, plywood frame, very tastefully done and a lovely tone. Much better choice if the drum is for use rather than decoration. Especially if it lives in a camper van (as mine did).

GC

 

[Springchicken]

Another thing of which to be aware with ash: it is plentiful and therefore relatively inexpensive but, because of die back, you mich find it rather more brittle. I find that, making hoop-backed Windsor chairs is a good deal more challenging now - with many more failures after soaking and steaming - than it was pre-die back. I reckon that lime would be a good, soft(-er) alternative. Good luck with it!

 

[cynff]

If this is your first drum then I’ll make a highly unpopular suggestion:

Make a couple out of 6mm ply before you spend money and effort on more expensive woods.

I have a friend who used to make very beautiful parade drums. Made of painted marine ply with plastic skins and nylon ropes, The East End Earls would keep going when everyone else stopped in the rain.

You will learn many of the skills and be far more likely to produce a playable instrument for your first effort.

Thanks @Patree that's an interesting suggestion. I'm not sure that bending marine ply will be anything like bending greenwood, so I'm not sure what I'd learn from the process. If sourcing greenwood is expensive per board, then I may come back to this plan.

 

[cynff]

Answer's inline below...

Are you familiar with the https://www.wood-database.com/wood-filter/ ?

No, that looks helpful, thanks.

Basswood = lime wood
Tulip poplar (not two different trees as suggested), aka yellow poplar. You could look at Black poplar. Poplar is sold as a utility type wood, rather plain, rather soft, fast growing. Not particularly known for straight splits though

Ok, So maybe Tulip poplar would be a good option. Any idea what that is like for splitting?

Interesting debate to have with oneself, wanting to build a traditional North American native drum with basic hand tools, using wood available in the UK

Haha, I know.. However, I feel very passionate about making a drum myself and so am going with that feeling... and trusting that the practical problems can be solved. The book I mentioned is the only one I know of for making hand drums for shamanic purposes. The Sami in Northern Europe made hand drums for this purpose. However, I don't know of any book that descibes how to make theme.

.

What size log are you thinking you will be splitting down? What tools do you have? Done much long log splitting? You have a free a riving break?

No, to all questions. I'll probably be looking for someone that can teach me. If you know of anyone is Sussex or nearby that can teach me, please let me know.

My experience splitting bow staves from ash, and other stuff has been that there is really an optimal moisture content to get the splits as straight as they will go. Cut in May or June, trying to split ash was like trying to split vulcanised rubber! Cut in October or November and left for a month and it split beautifully. Seasoned for longer and trying to split the following summer and it was hard and a right bugger to split.

That's great advice, i'll bear it in mind.

 

[Pattree]

I'm not sure what I'd learn from the process.

…….all the other things about drum making that aren’t bending wood. Well….. in fact, a bit of bending wood as well

btw. (Off topic)
The most northerly people of what is now the American continent hadn’t seen wood except as trade goods with more southerly neighbours. Their sleighs had whale bone runners or even runners made from salmon wrapped in seal skin. I would not be at all surprised to hear of shamanic drums made of baleen.

Do you see the making of the drum as your priority or do you hope to travel?

 

[Tengu]

How did they make drums and tambours in this country?

 

[HillBill]

How did they make drums and tambours in this country?

Willow was the most common.

 

[Pattree]

The old tabors that I’ve seen are made like cooperage - little barrel staves and binding.

 

[Toddy]

The traditional tabor though is double sided, the ones the OP mentions are tensioned underneath by the hand grasping the crossed strings, like the bhodran used to be....or 'rough' ones still are.

I know that oak can be split, riven, very tidily, and it's surprisingly flexible when it's done like that. Oak splint baskets were a staple of agricultural life in the UK for millenia.

Oak Spelk Baskets — Lorna Singleton

www.lornasingleton.co.uk

That technique of splitting green wood used to be so commonplace. Do it along a length and coil it up and there's the frame of a small drum.
Ash can be beaten along it's length to split the growth rings apart, and again, that's the basics of the coiled ring.
Basketmakers usually cut into narrower strips, but I've seen it come off six inches wide.

splint basket making – PETER FOLLANSBEE: JOINER’S NOTES

Posts about splint basket making written by pfollansbee

pfollansbee.wordpress.com

I'm having fun reading sites and seeing the work of Crafts folks as I disappear down this rabbit hole

 

[cynff]

Willow was the most common.

How did they make the drum frame with willow? By bending and fixing with cord?

 

[GreyCat]

Probably. Green (i.e. fresh cut) willow is very flexible. Hoops for frame baskets were typically bent to shape (these days around a former) immediately then left to dry for a few months before use. Some baskets (e.g. the Cyntell) also used split willow (or sometimes hazel) for the ribs, this was split and shaped green, and used once dried out.

That is the thing with willow- cut when flexible, split/shape, then leave to dry. (It will shrink, which is why you wdon't typically weave with green willow).

GC

 

[HillBill]

How did they make the drum frame with willow? By bending and fixing with cord?

As Greycat says above. Take advantage of its flexibility and high moisture content. THings made of wood through our history, were never made quickly.

An example which springs to mind is the modern discussion of... Were yew bows more powerful than a mongol recurve bow. Now, having never used proper versions of either of them, i can only forward what i have read. Mongol bows, took 12 months to make, as they were laminates and once made, needed time to be what they were. Being a nomadic people, they would travel to areas where the materials to make them were available, move to the next etc, construct the bow, dig pits and leave them in the pits until they came back around next year. They would have food and bows stored in said pits... WHen they arrived the year after, they would eat the food from last year, while they produced or gathered more, and finish off the bows who's binding agents had now fully done their thing, and the bow could then be tried out.

Yew... Well, we had it grown and seasoned by the Italians, and they paid port taxes in Yew bow staves. Win win, Unless you were French.

 

[cynff]

rather than trying to bend soaked ash, try steaming it instead. Kiln dried ash will bend in a circle if its full of hot steam ;-) heck you can tie a 30x6mm strip in a knot easily enough!

there is a technique to it still, you have to exercise the wood gently rather than just bending full on in one movement and if you have cut across the grain of a sawn board it will need to be thicker (though you can still shave it off after it has dried)

Thanks Dave. I'm exploring using hot water at the moment. See my post here.