So Far

I'm proud to say that I've sanded even more and am nearing the end of the sanding process. I need to now switch up to a 320 grit paper, sand it all again, and then do an interesting process. My mentor suggested that I should coat a small cotton piece of fabric with a very small amount of water, barely damp. I should then gently rub it across the surface of the wood and let it sit for a bit. I then should sand off the slightly risen grain. That will help my varnish go on much smoother. I'm pretty excited. I can see the end in sight!

Or, at least the end of the harp's construction. After it is built, fully assembled and everything, I have to sew myself a case for it. That means I have to learn how to sew, and I have no idea how to do that. This will be a fun experience.

And for the few that read this, here's a picture of the harp so far.

Ta daah!

A Huge Load of Nothing Special

With the soundbox, harmonic curve and neck, and the feet all ready to sand, I went out to buy myself two new types of sand paper: 150 and 180-bit grit. These will be used one at a time over the entire piece of wood before I move onto the next kind. I will know when to move to a higher value when I see small marks caused by the sand paper to form on the wood.

For the last month and a half, I have been sanding and sanding the harp. I have completed two walnut feet (which were a bit of a pain, due to all of the curves), the body (which was pretty strait foreword), and the combined harmonic curve (a super pain, because of a lot of curves and cuts) and the pillar (very easy). I started on the feet with 150-grit to remove any marks already in the wood due to the cut from the original block. After I started to make my own marks, I used the 180 to buff out those marks and smooth even more. Finally, I used a 220 to make it the smoothest it has ever been. I repeated those steps with all three wood groups.

My hands hurt, and at times I felt like I breathed in more dust than air, but it is worth it. The harps feels so much better now.

Total time? Over a dozen hours of sanding off and on.

Another Journal Binge - Recent, too! A bit of a jump, but still. Update!

November 16, 2007 (8:33 AM – 5:34 PM, 9 ¹/₆₀ hours today, 95 ²⁹/₆₀ hours total)

Today I job shadowed the Dusty Strings Factory. I left the house and arrived early in somewhat formal but still practical clothing. I was asked to bring in my incomplete harp for some professional help, which I did. Before this, I installed all the trim strips, no matter how many times I had to tear them off and re-apply them. Naturally, the back left trim strip spilled out a lot of glue (which didn’t actually seem to stick to the strip), so I was hoping to see how well I could take care of it. I arrived, was introduced to the Production Manager, who brought me around to different people.

The first person I met told me about planing wood, bringing trim strips to a flush, and how to use a planer effectively. He also showed me how the Dusty Strings harps are brought to a flush edge all around, even with the multitude of protruding strips. The next man showed me how to apply extra glue effectively to a trim strip, and then how to assemble the neck and Harmonic Curve. Amazingly, I did assemble them.

The third person who helped me showed me how the Ravenna line was made. It was amazingly simple – I think that Dusty Strings should make a kit out of it. The fourth person who helped me actually showed me how the sharpening levers were installed. With a few more pointers, I went down to start the sanding on my harp under the eye of yet another helpful employee. He showed me how to fill in holes with filler, how to sand things to a flush, and generically helped me get my harp to its near finished state.

All in all, this long day was immensely wonderful and very full. I loved it!

Journal Entries!

Sunday September 30, 2007 (8:04 – 10:07 AM, 2 ¹/₂₀ hours, 35 ¹³/₁₅ hours total)

Today, I worked on trimming the soundboard and gluing it on. After hard work, a nasty head cold that dulled my mind, and a lot of frustration, I glued the trimmed soundboard to the soundbox. When I next work on the project, I will power brad the soundboard into place for extra security.

Friday October 12, 2007 (1:36 – 5:47 PM, 4 ¹¹/₆₀ hours, 40 ¹/₂₀ hours total)

Today I visited Dusty Strings again. I talked to Eileen, who was again immensely helpful. Now that I am building a harp, I marvel at their expert craftsmanship. They are simply amazing – I hope I can create such beautiful structures. I signed up for the Harp Symposium, which will take place on November 2 – 4, which means that I will miss Friday’s school. It is a worthy cause, though. I simply can not wait.

I volunteered to be a “Harp Vallet”, which is more lovingly called a “Harp Monkey”. They cut the $200 fee in half if I come early and carry harps up and down the stairs. I can not wait to do it, and to keep my skills in check, I rented a harp from Dusty Strings. A 32-string harp, which was the closest to the 33-string harp I am building (it is just missing the highest string). A link to it can be seen here: http://dustystrings.com/building/fh32.shtml .

Week of October 12 – 19, 2007 (1 ¹/₃ hours, 41 23/60 hours total)

I have practiced religiously on the rented harp. It is such a beautiful sound; I almost melted when I heard it. I can not wait to be a better harpist/harper so that I can make the sound truly worthy of the instrument.

Steps Eleven through Thirteen - Woot! Soundboard!

Friday September 21, 2007 (6:35 – 8:03 AM, 10:58 AM – 4:33 PM, 8 ¹/₂₀ hours, 33 ⁴⁹/₆₀ hours total)

I devoted today to my Senior Project. This morning, when I woke up (annoyingly early, I might add), I watched Sylvia Wood’s learning how to play harp video. I observed the hand movements, music, and technique. That took a bit of time, so I took a nice-sized break in between that and working on the construction.

I set up and drilled the soundboard (mostly) during the obnoxiously long time period. I first laid out all of the parts, measured and traced them, and then I glued them on, or so I thought. Apparently, on the reinforcement bar, I did not apply enough glue to the tapered end, which I found out later. I continued on and soon had the stiffener on top of the reinforcement bar, which was on top of the inside of the soundboard. The glue said to let it sit for thirty minutes, but I let it sit for an hour.

During the hour of waiting, I started to sand the notch of the reinforcement bar so it was flush with the soundboard (it was too narrow, so I made it flush on one side). My arm did hurt a lot during that process, sine the reinforcement bar was quite tough. I did get it close before I just could not proceed even more.

Once the glue had set, I picked up the ¹/₈” drill bit, drill, and began putting holes in the soundboard. Of course, I followed the punch marks and kept the drill as vertical as I could. Around the seventy-eight punch hole, however, the board underneath slipped slightly. It was not a big deal, I figured (probably just my tired arm), so I took a small break and began again ten minutes later. Since it did not happen for the next few notches, I figured that I solved the problem. On notch thirty-two, though, I witnessed the reinforcement bar jut away from the soundboard underneath. Apparently, I put too much pressure on the glue and the very end of the reinforcement bar became undone. I applied more glue, waited another hour (ugh), continued the flush sanding on the other end of the board, and waited again. When the hour was up, I tested the tip of the soundboard’s reinforcement bar. It still came undone! Now getting frustrated, I applied glue for overnight drying. If anyone would try and build a Voyageur Harp, then my words of wisdom (that I’ve learned so far) are: Glue generously, clean quickly, and dry overnight.

Photographic Evidence (Before Step 11)
Photographic Evidence (Step 11)
Photographic Evidence (Step 12)
Photographic Evidence (Step 12)
Photographic Evidence (Step 12)
Photographic Evidence (Step 12)
Photographic Evidence (Step 13)
Photographic Evidence (Step 13)

Steps Eight through Ten - The Back is Done!

Thursday September 20, 2007 (7:02 – 9:35 PM, 2 ¹¹/₂₀ hours, 25 ²³/₃₀ hours total)

Today I assembled the back of the harp’s in one fell swoop. I started off by sanding down the braces to a flush, making a smooth surface for the back to rest on. After that, I dry-fit the back, choose the surface without a large brown smear down the middle, and a very beautiful set of grain. I traced where I felt I should cut off excess material on the back, and then I squeezed the back panel between the table and a wooden block. I cut off the excess, leaving enough room to sand to a flush. When I marked and cut the back panel, I then practiced using a power brad nailer into a scrap piece of cherry. Once I figured out the proper level of pressure, I knew I was ready to continue onto the rest of the steps. I marked spots around the perimeter of the board that was about half an inch away from the outside and an inch apart from each other. When I had my goals, I applied the glue, smoothed it out, put the back on, clamped, and began the nailing. The nailing went smoothly, considering I was relatively new at it. I had a bit of trouble keeping the tool vertical at all times, so I might not have perfect nail placement.

I rested 5 lbs. sand bags on top of the braces (hidden by the back panel) and ensured that it was safe and secure. Steps eight through ten have now been completed.

Photographic Evidence (Step 8)
Photographic Evidence (Step 9)
Photographic Evidence (Step 9)
Photographic Evidence (Step 9 and Me)
Photographic Evidence (Step 10)
Photographic Evidence (Step 10)

Steps Five and Six?! Amazing! Wait - is That Even a Step Seven?

Wednesday September 19, 2007 (7:45 – 9:46 PM, 2 ¹/₆₀ hours, 23 ¹³/₆₀ hours total)

The more and more I e-mail Musicmakers, the more and more I appreciate the company. Matt from Musicmakers has been keeping in contact with me as we exchange e-mails. He even asked for the link to the blog so that he could put it on the web site! I was extremely honored.

Aside from that, I continued the project and managed to get relatively far. I glued in the top of the body, clamped it up, and waited thirty minutes (Step Five). During those thirty minutes, I did some research and ensured that I was on the right track. After the thirty minutes, I test-fitted the braces into the body and tried to ensure that they were fitting properly. After I was confident, I glued them in, wiped off the excess glue, and clamped it up. At the moment, the body is suspended on clamps, which makes me a bit worried. I did double-check the integrity of the structure, put some padding under trouble areas, and adjusted it so that it would be difficult for it to fall over. That makes steps four and five completed - a great night of work, as well as clean-up, which is step seven.

Photographic Evidence (Step 5)
Photographic Evidence (Step 5)
Photographic Evidence (Step 6)
Photographic Evidence (Step 6)
Photographic Evidence (Step 7)
Photographic Evidence (Me)