Resources for concertina building

[Fraxinus]

Hi! 

I am a fairly new concertina player, and have decided that I am really enjoying learning the instrument! Currently, I am playing a Rochelle, which is fine for what I am doing now, but eventually, I would like to move up to a nicer instrument. However, I tend to have more time than money, so I am interested in maybe building one at some point. I am a skilled leatherworker, and I do a lot of small handcrafts with wood (spoon carving, greenwood carving, etc). I have built three harps (and restored/repaired a few), and I am very methodical when it comes to building things. My dad and brother are hobby luthiers that mainly work with guitars. 

 

Can anyone recommend a book, site, or video tutorials? I looked to see if there was a central thread for resources, but didn't see one. I have access to a full woodshop with almost every tool you could want

[David Barnert]

Good luck!

 

It is said that most of the value of a concertina is in the reeds, and you will have to decide what to do about that. Make your own reeds? Source concertina reeds? Source accordion reeds and make a hybrid (like your Rochelle)? Each of these choices has some significant pros and cons to consider.

Edited April 15 by David Barnert
Fixed typo and a little rewording.

[Fraxinus]

Ideally, I would like to make an actual concertina with concertina reeds, but it would be highly dependant on cost/how complicated it would be to make my own. 

[RAc]

Tedrow Zephyr Concertina (homewood.net)

 

[Steve Schulteis]

I wouldn't expect to save a lot of money unless you already have a lot of materials and components on hand. Reeds alone will cost a few hundred dollars. Mix in leather, card, levers, springs, pads, buttons, specialized tooling, etc, and the dollars add up real quick. Not to discourage you - I think there's a lot of merit in making things. But cost savings will probably be meager, especially on the first instrument.

 

To get an idea of what's involved in reed production (and many other parts of concertina building), check out Alex Holden's blog and Instagram. There's also some interesting stuff on the Kensington concertinas website.

 

There's not one central thread documenting building methods, but there is a lot of good info on this forum. Many makers and repairers have generously shared their expertise over the years. Searching for info about specific components will yield good results.

Edited April 15 by Steve Schulteis

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

What not utilise a used concertina.. one that is physically now only useable for spare parts? And salvage parts from it? May be cheaper to source one than buying all the bits from scratch. Someone may be glad to move on old one for less price.. use the bits left over 

[David Lay]

Here is a website with details of Henrik Muller's journey into making his own.  http://concertinamatters.se/page2/page2.html  I have found his information and Alex Holden's to be most helpful (both of which have so far convinced me to stick to basic repairs).  Both are members of concertina.net.

[David Lay]

Also, here is one source for manufactured individual reeds https://www.harmonikas.cz/en/uvod-english/.  If you search the name on concertina.net, you can find discussions by others about their experiences buying these reeds.

https://www.harmonikas.cz/en/product/dix-concertina-original-2/

Edited April 16 by David Lay

[Wally Carroll]

My advice would be to make your own instrument only because you want to make your own instrument as you are not likely to save money; and your first instrument is not likely to be as good as what you could buy for less than you’ll spend.  In order to make your own reeds here are a few tools you might not have in your workshop:

 

To cut the shoes you would need a milling machine at minimum (preferably cnc) and a significant amount of time to get it all figured out.  To cut reed pans you would need either a cnc router (milling machine could work) or a pin router with appropriate templates that are difficult to make (though possible) without cnc machinery.  To cut tongues, at minimum you would need a metal sheer and a lot of time to file profiles. More sophisticated setups also involve using surface grinders with reed profiles dressed into the wheels, though this wouldn’t make sense unless you were going to make several instruments. 
 

Another major expense which I would consider essential  is a good quality instrument to study and use as a template.  This may or may not be something you could borrow from a friend. 
 

Again, do it for the fun and challenge of doing it, not to save a few bucks. In fact, if you do make one, you’ll probably want to make another and then you’ll start down the rabbit hole of investing more money into it and twenty two years later . . .

[alex_holden]

If you want to make your own reed assemblies but don't have a CNC milling machine, it is possible to have the frame blanks made for you by a commercial laser cutting service, e.g. SendCutSend. I believe that's what David Hornett did.

 

There are some fairly cheap CNC routers (e.g. 3040) available from China that probably aren't strong enough to cut metal parts, but might be adequate for routing reed pans and action boards.

 

IMO one of the most important tools for reedmaking is a good low power microscope with a backlight so you can see how much clearance you have between reed tongue and frame. I started with a binocular optical one but have now mostly switched to a 1080p video microscope connected to a large monitor.

 

I agree that it's very helpful to have access to high quality instruments to study if you want to learn to make good instruments yourself.

[Chris Ghent]

I have found if you tell someone how to make a concertina they realise they don’t want to do it.  

Edited April 19 by Chris Ghent

[David Hornett]

I have made quite a few concertinas, 37 to be precise, in 4 different sizes and different number of buttons: metal and wooden ends, from many different Tasmanian woods. It can become very addictive. I began knowing nothing, and the first four 39 button concertinas were basically unplayable because I guessed about profiling and was not aware of the critical aspect of precise fitting of the reeds, although I was at the time rather proud of the results of my efforts.  It took me over 1000 hours to make my first concertina, the hardest part was making all the jigs: a little guided vertical router for the reed pans, the bellows jig, a sanding drum / thicknesser, button dies, a saddle screw jig, reed profiling jig and a button making jig, among others.  Each 'tina takes about 120 hours now, but I am retired so do it in dribs and drabs between other activities. My last 4 took a month each. And as I have run out of shoe blanks, I suspect number 37 is my last.

 

I designed my reeds to be parallel and wider than standard concertina reeds, (figured wider ones would be louder) thinking that tapered reeds would be harder to hand shape. They are not. Once I had designed the reeds (width and length), I got the shoes lazer cut commercially: 3000 of them in 14 different sizes from 2mm brass. I had considered casting them myself in maybe: bronze / brass / alloy, but figured that was going too far, so got them lazer cut. Each shoe still has to be undercut, have the saddles fitted and a 7 degree taper filed on the sides.

 

My first reeds were made of clock springs, they worked, but after one instrument I settled with cutting them from plate spring steel. That worked better (no curve to straighten.) Each reed is hand cut and profiled: approx 4 reeds an hour, 64 in a little over 2 days if I get carried away.

 

I have absolutely enjoyed the challenge; have given quite a few of my later 'tinas away: I treat it as a hobby, not a business, and have sold a few to cover costs. Each family member also has one to remember granddad/uncle by.

 

At number 6 I decided to make no more; did the same at 10, then 20, then 30, and now am up to 37. Each time I decided to stop, I  thought I might just try a small alteration, or reduce size to a smaller model, or try out snake skin rather than roo leather.  It is addictive.

 

My advice is if you would like to make one tina, or 37, do so. But you most certainly won't save money, unless you can get your hands on a good set of used concertina reeds for a pittance: but then there goes the challenge. The cost of all the materials, and the lazer cut reed shoes comes to approx A$600 each 'tina. And then there is the tooling and the jigs.

 

Hope this helps: I have had a lot of fun, and have some very nice looking instruments that I enjoy playing; friends I have given them to tell me they also enjoy them. I hope they are telling the truth.

 

David