"slow-food" Concertina Making

[chris salty-dog vonderborch]

I have made 4 concertinas over the past 8 years for my sins, in part as a colleague of that talented maker, now sadly deceased, Pierre Hoofte, and partly under the watchful eyes of Peter Hyde. The last 3 years has seen a harp, 2 classical guitars and 3 ukuleles emerge from my cosy workshop in the far south of Tasmania. So now I have committed myself to a 48-key baritone English concertina. I plan to share with you the ups and downs, as the project proceeds. It will take time, however, as I am not doing it commercially, but am enjoying the process. I call it "slow-food" concertina-making!

 

I initially assembled a fat folder of plans for the instrument, all on stable-base tracing paper. No, I am not "CAD" literate, so all has been drafted by hand. I decided to make the wooden ends from one of our famous local rain-forest trees, Tasmanian Myrtle, so I located a lovely piece of figured deep-red myrtle for the job. I turned the ends on my wood lathe, as they are of the raised type. Then I contact-glued a photocopy of the fretwork on to each, and spent 2 neck-stretching days at my jigsaw. The end-plates were then "framed" in dark, spicy-smelling Brazilian Walnut, and fitted to the actual frames of another local wood, Sassafras. I also selected quarter-sawn Sassafras for the "action-board" and (in the absence of maple) the reed-pans. I used quarter-sawn for stability, and the pans are as flat as the day they were first cut.

 

My other concertina friend, Chris Ghent in Sydney, is, indeed, CAD-literate, and he kindly milled me a lovely set of brass reed shoes, 96 in all. I have just routed the dovetailed slots in the pans, and have now ground and fitted each shoe into its final resting place. They look good, all shiny and golden against the blacks and greys of the Sassafras. Well, I did make a few mistakes, which ended up with the smaller shoes being too narrow at the screw ends, so Chris has kindly consented to make these again, and I will grind them a bit wider and hand-chisel to widen the slots.

 

So to date, probably 100 hours into the project, I have the end-frames completed, the pans fitted but not partitioned, most of the shoes fitted and tapped, and the brass buttond turned and drilled. A long road beckons ahead, but I am in no haste. I want this to be a top-class hand-made instrument. Time will tell!!

[Pete Dunk]

Welcome to the forum Chris, photos please!

[Johann]

This sounds very intersing would like to see photos, pleaes.

[Dirge]

Yes, I'm looking forward to hearing your progress too.

[Dana Johnson]

another local wood, Sassafras. I also selected quarter-sawn Sassafras for the "action-board" and (in the absence of maple) the reed-pans. I used quarter-sawn for stability, and the pans are as flat as the day they were first cut.

 

Wow! You have Sassafras in Tasmania? I had thought it was a native to North America. It grows all over here in Maryland and I have may fond Ohio childhood memories of it's fragrant mitten shaped leaves and tea from the root bark. A bit of local research for me is in order!

Dana

[Henrik Müller]

...I call it "slow-food" concertina-making!...

Good on you! Looking forward!

/Henrik

[chris salty-dog vonderborch]

another local wood, Sassafras. I also selected quarter-sawn Sassafras for the "action-board" and (in the absence of maple) the reed-pans. I used quarter-sawn for stability, and the pans are as flat as the day they were first cut.

 

Wow! You have Sassafras in Tasmania? I had thought it was a native to North America. It grows all over here in Maryland and I have may fond Ohio childhood memories of it's fragrant mitten shaped leaves and tea from the root bark. A bit of local research for me is in order!

Dana

 

 

Gday, Dana,

 

I am not sure that Sassafras from Tas is the same as the one you mention; just the name. However, it does have lovely scented leaves, which have serrated edges. The wood is greyish-brown, often "spalted" by black fungal staining, and sought after for craft items. It is very fine-grained, and machines well, tho not as hard as maple. It is OK for reed pans, however; I don't reckon that there is a tonal deficit.

 

By the way, we used to correspond several years back, when I was making earlier "tinas.

 

I want to post dig. pictures of my methods and progress, and am still trying to do it. In fact, something is amiss, because, despite signing in, I have been unable to post an second article. Maybe the signing in went amiss, tho I am unsure why. I have emailed Paul Schwartz for help, so maybe soon!!

 

Regards, Chris

[Dana Johnson]

Gday, Dana,

 

I am not sure that Sassafras from Tas is the same as the one you mention; just the name. However, it does have lovely scented leaves, which have serrated edges. The wood is greyish-brown, often "spalted" by black fungal staining, and sought after for craft items. It is very fine-grained, and machines well, tho not as hard as maple. It is OK for reed pans, however; I don't reckon that there is a tonal deficit.

 

By the way, we used to correspond several years back, when I was making earlier "tinas.

 

I want to post dig. pictures of my methods and progress, and am still trying to do it. In fact, something is amiss, because, despite signing in, I have been unable to post an second article. Maybe the signing in went amiss, tho I am unsure why. I have emailed Paul Schwartz for help, so maybe soon!!

 

Regards, Chris

Don't worry, I remember you very well. I've spoken of you to Chris G. on occasion, and he's filled me in a bit on your somewhat enviable life. Hope your concertina turns out great. If it doesn't , I know it won't be for lack of workmanship! Our Sasafras is a coarser wood, often compared to American Chestnut which is sadly almost extinct due to a fungus imported from China. ( it once was the dominant hardwood of eastern North America) Chris said another name for your wood was something like "boodle" if the phone connection was any good. I'll look it up.

Dana

[Chris Ghent]

Chris said another name for your wood was something like "boodle" if the phone connection was any good. I'll look it up.

 

We definitely had a crossed line at that point..! Bootle

This site suggests the timber Chris is using is a native of Tasmania, however I note a different spelling to yours, sassafras/sasafras.

 

Chris

[asdormire]

We definitely had a crossed line at that point..! Bootle

This site suggests the timber Chris is using is a native of Tasmania, however I note a different spelling to yours, sassafras/sasafras.

 

Chris

 

 

Definately not the weed tree that needs taken out of the garden.

 

Alan

[Ivan Viehoff]

This site suggests the timber Chris is using is a native of Tasmania, however I note a different spelling to yours, sassafras/sasafras.

There are so many trees in the myrtle family in Australia, eg all the eucalypts and bottlebrushes, but the one you call "myrtle" is actually a southern beech, Nothofagus cunninghamii. The one you call sassafras, Atherosperma moschata, is at least in the same family, the laurels, as what the rest of us call sassafras (Sassafras albidum and S. tzumu). (But what we Brits call "laurel" is actually a cherry.)

[chris salty-dog vonderborch]

This site suggests the timber Chris is using is a native of Tasmania, however I note a different spelling to yours, sassafras/sasafras.

There are so many trees in the myrtle family in Australia, eg all the eucalypts and bottlebrushes, but the one you call "myrtle" is actually a southern beech, Nothofagus cunninghamii. The one you call sassafras, Atherosperma moschata, is at least in the same family, the laurels, as what the rest of us call sassafras (Sassafras albidum and S. tzumu). (But what we Brits call "laurel" is actually a cherry.)

 

 

 

Correct!! And the Tasmanian Myrtle, comprises part of the geologically famous Gondwana Flora, being confined to South America, New Zealand, southeastern Australia and South Africa. The species varies a small amount in these now well-separated continents, but similarities are great.

 

Chris vonderBorch