Tassie Tiger 32 Button Snake Skin And Banksia D/g

[David Hornett]

Hi,

 

I hope this link works.

 

Below are, I hope, the links to photobucket where the latest D/G 32 button Tassie Tiger is imaged. Snake skin bellows, casurania buttons and banksia ends.

 

My son thinks all it needs is gold highlights (and possibly a pentatonic scale) and it will corner the Chinese (read Chinese dragon) market.

 

All the best

 

david

 

http://s1104.photobucket.com/user/DavidHornett/media/IMG_2129_zpsxev3adjw.jpg.html?sort=2&o=19

 

http://s1104.photobucket.com/user/DavidHornett/media/IMG_2130_zpsqhuwcuwp.jpg.html?sort=2&o=20

 

http://s1104.photobucket.com/user/DavidHornett/media/IMG_2131_zpsmqktputo.jpg.html?sort=2&o=21

 

http://s1104.photobucket.com/user/DavidHornett/media/IMG_2128_zpswjgevckp.jpg.html?sort=2&o=18

[Chris Ghent]

Very flash..!

[Peter Laban]

Using the img (HTML) tags provided :

 

 

 

 

 

And yes, very wild looking.

[CrP]

Thank you posting the link to those photos. I scrolled thro' them to see what all the instruments look like and was really impressed. How many different examples of leather + wood combinations have you done? Very impressive!

[David Hornett]

How many, well you got me counting, about 10 complete builds, (and possibly equal number of almost complete rebuilds, i.e. repairing dead instruments from the net):

 

4 x 38 metal buttons (2 x C/G, and 2 xG/D) = 7 fold kangaroo skin, blackwood ends, (own handmade reeds.)

1 x 20 bone button A/E 7 fold kangaroo skin and blackwood (Jones brass reeds converted to metal)

1 x 20 button C/G 7 fold kangaroo skin mahogany ends (1880s Crabb reeds: sounds just like a Jeffries, possibly better)

1 x 32 wooden buttons (casuarina 'Buloke') C/G 7 fold kangaroo skin, sassafras ends (own handmade reeds)

1 x 32 wooden buttons (casuarina 'Buloke') C/G 7 fold snake skin, blackwood ends (own handmade reeds)

1 x 32 cheese wood buttons C/G 7 fold kangaroo skin, banksia ends (own handmade reeds)

1 x 32 button G/D 7 fold snake skin, banksia ends (own handmade reeds)

 

 

A few different materials have been tried for action boards, the best combination being King Billy pine with aHuon pine plate for the pegs. This gives an interesting rounded sound to the timbre.

 

The hardest thing is making satisfactory reeds. I made the first 4 metal ended instruments, and was rather proud of my reeds -- and then met Chris Ghent who very kindly pointed out my many failings, (it was a shame I had not met him before I got it into my mind to make reeds! Oh well, I learnt a lot stuffing up.) The 6 instruments since that meeting are vast improvements on the original four.

 

Anyway, most of these instruments are now gracing my bookcase awaiting sassafras cases, (when I get sick of making reeds) from whence they are to be distributed as presents. The non Tassie Tiger instruments, those from other liveries which have been repaired, will eventually be sold, but at the moment they make good reference instruments for my own productions.

 

There's been a lot of fun making these instruments, but the end game is to be a full sized 'B' griff accordion using slip in concertina reeds (hundreds of 'em) -- will keep me going for years, should I ever get started: but I'ii have to cheat just a little and scavenge a Hohner 120 button Stradella bass, my enthusiasm does not stretch as far as making one of them.

 

David

[David Hornett]

Oh, As for the wooden buttons, lighter than metal, feel warm under the fingers and don't clack. And buloke is hard: from Wiki:

 

Allocasuarina luehmannii is known as having the hardest wood in the world, with a Janka Hardness of 5060 lbf

 

David

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

I am always impressed by reed making.

 

I remember when you posted ages ago showing how you laser cut the reed holders then used a filing jig to put angles on the sides. Did you find you had to file the frames a bit then test fit it in the reed pan and file a bit more and fiddle with it in this way until it fit the reed pan or was it generally pretty fast "reed frame in jig, run file across, done"

Edited July 12, 2016 by Jake of Hertford

[David Hornett]

Hi Jake,

 

I discovered the easiest way to taper the side of the shoes (reed holders) is to hold shoe in one hand, file in the other, place the shoe at approximate 7 degree and briskly rub against file: it is very quick if a new file is used..

 

If is also quick to undercut the shoe slot by using a small file and holding at about a 3-5 degree angle.

 

I thought profiling would be the hardest thing when making reeds, but now I have drawn up a chart that tells me how thin the section just in from reed's root has to be for each note. I file the reed tongue at this point to this thickness on the jig I posted, and from this point stroke the length of the reed with a file until the desired note is reached. This too is fairly quick. (I start the profiling in a filing jig and complete in the tuning jig with the shoe held in little wooded shoe holders, this allows me to tune as I file.

 

(As I have 11 different shoe sizes, in each shoe size one reed tongue will be nearly flat, another will have a slop toward the tip and another will have a thickened tip (3 notes from each shoe size), so 33 notes from 11 shoe sizes (as a rule of thumb), pretty well enough for a concertina range when not weighting the tongues.)

 

BUT! the hardest thing is getting the reed's width so it fits into the shoe with no lumps and bumps along its side and ideally a 1.5 thou gap between reed and shoe, (This lack of care and accuracy was the major problem Chris drew my attention to, as well as some rather bad profiling, before I discovered the technique given above.) This takes the time. All up from go to completion I make 4 reeds, in their shoes and tuned to pitch in an hour on average.

 

To get the width: (It is only after the width is right that the reed is screwed to the shoe and profiled in the jig as discussed above.)

 

A, I use a desk top card cutter (1930's) with HSS blades. 4 rare earth magnets (2 for the steel plate from which the reeds are to be cut, and two for the baulking bar that firms behind the plate holding the reed steel sheet in place. The tempered steel sheet is pushed against the blade, the blade then lifted, a alloy spacer 4-5 thou. wider than the reed to be cut is inserted behind the sheet, pushing the steel forward under the blade to 5 though wider than the desired reed width, and then 'chop'. A very quick process to make dozens of strips. Up to 80 thou. is cut with ease.

 

B, A strip is selected and placed in a grove cut in a solid brass block to the thickness of the strip. The strip is then filed to the width of the gap in the reed shoe, a diamond abrading block is being used to finish the job as it approximates the reed shoe width: this is time consuming and takes trial and error fitting until the tongue just drops through the reed shoe slot. ( after this reeds are profiled)

 

Fitting the reed shoes to the reed board is done by routing the slots using the jig that is depicted on photo bucket with the concertina. Each shoe is individually fitted and it takes about 2 hours to rout out all 64 shoe beds; then another two hours to rout out the air slots. (A 7 degree tapered dremel mini router bit had to be ground down on a grinding wheel until it was small enough to fit into the smallest reed shoe bedding slot.)

 

Hope this helps.

 

David

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

Hi Jake,

 

I discovered the easiest way to taper the side of the shoes (reed holders) is to hold shoe in one hand, file in the other, place the shoe at approximate 7 degree and briskly rub against file: it is very quick if a new file is used..

 

 

 

wait wait hold on, so you literally are putting the slant on the outside of the reed shoe at 7 degrees and that angle is done entirely by eye and feel? Or did I mis-understand

 

I am not being critical I am just surprised

[David Hornett]

Yes, with the reed in the shoe and the retaining strap screwed down, the strap is therefore also part of the slant and helps steady the shoe when filing. I use an 8 inch Nicholson fast second cut file, the same file I use to profile the reeds (before finishing them with a flat diamond pad). Try it, you will be surprised how quick and easy, and accurate it is.

 

David