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DanKnowles - Posted - 11/26/2009: 16:38:41
This afternoon I went through my stock of ebony. A while back I was fortunate to acquire a large stock of Macassar ebony. This is a wood which has varying degrees of grain striping and figure. It is not quite as dense, black or as heavy as Gabon ebony, still it is quite heavy and dense and is a nice wood for this use. Oddly enough this wood came as scrap from a hardwood flooring manufacturer's run of ebony flooring. Imagine ebony flooring! I was told that the flooring (unfinished) sold for $56 per. squire foot.
This wood was scrap and so there are many pieces which exhibited checking, knots, short length and other anomalies which make it unsuitable for fingerboards and other banjo and guitar work. Still through judicious cutting and inspection forty plus 5 ½ “X 1 ½” pieces were created.
The first job was to rip the strips down to 1 ¾ “wide and begin running them through the thickness planer. This batch was brought down to 25/32”.
Edited by - DanKnowles on 11/27/2009 17:59:02
beegee - Posted - 11/26/2009: 17:34:07
Here's one by my friend Harry Lane, The Model M(Mephistopheles):
Edited by - beegee on 11/26/2009 17:36:25
Will1717 - Posted - 11/26/2009: 21:03:44
Dan:
I just built up a titanium WL ring. Possibly I've found a home for it???
I'll give you a call.
Bill Rickard
Edited by - Will1717 on 11/26/2009 21:04:11
jbalch - Posted - 11/27/2009: 05:01:48
quote:
Originally posted by Will1717
Dan:
I just built up a titanium WL ring. Possibly I've found a home for it???
I'll give you a call.
Bill Rickard
Edited by - jbalch on 11/27/2009 05:02:43
jbalch - Posted - 11/27/2009: 05:08:05
Dan:
To insert an image in the reply...
1. copy the URL for the image
ie: banjohangout.ws/banjohangout.o...12009.jpg
2. Left click and highlight it.
3. click on the insert image icon in the toolbar 
That should do it.
rudy - Posted - 11/27/2009: 05:46:47
Dan,
Thanks for presenting the build process for your new jo, it will be great.
This image and accompanying instructions for inserting images into a post is on my photos page:
DanKnowles - Posted - 11/27/2009: 18:53:37
Ok now that I have the photo thing working I'll post a couple of days work on the New Ebony Banjo.
It takes 8 blocks to make up a layer so 8 blocks were laid center down on my workbench. Tape was placed on the back (outside) side binding the blocks together. The center blocks were then carefully lifted causing the blocks to form a natural ring. This ring is now laid on my bench to check the joints. These must be perfect, no slop. Any loose joint could cause the rim to fail.
The blocks are now flipped so that the inside of the ring could now be facing upwards. They then have glue applied on one side of each. The glue is smoothed out using my little finger and the blocks are again rolled forming the ring and placed flat on my work bench.A large hose clamp is now placed around the ring and it is drawn snug. The ring is now placed between to waxed gluing cawls. These cawls are made from MDF board, I use a lot of this stuff around the
shop. It is stable and makes great jigs and forms. The sandwich is then clamped on each joint and I'm done with this for the day. I will glue one layer per day.
Here I'm checking the first block fo flaws. 
DanKnowles - Posted - 11/28/2009: 19:35:18
How cool, today I get to see how my work has come out. I open the sandwich and all appears to be well.
First with a sharp chisel I scrape off the bit of glue squeeze out from yesterdays gluing. Then I clamp a sanding plane in my vise (or is it vice!). This plane is made from 3/4" plywood and 1/4" plate glass it has handles and is quite useful for a variety of trueing operations. It was made for me by my son Sam and I get a lot of milage out of it. This one is 4" wide and uses adhesive backed sandpaper that I get in rolls from a supplier. This time I'm using 120 grit. I sand the layer dead flat moving it around the plane.
Next I choose the blocks for my next layer, choosing blocks for color and figure. The next layer is glued and clamped as before and the waiting begins again. 
DanKnowles - Posted - 11/28/2009: 19:41:52
David Emery just sent this photo of the last my ebony banjo Sherry Lynn. Enjoy!
jbalch - Posted - 11/29/2009: 06:54:18
Bob:
The "knee-mute" is a device mostly found on Bacon & Day tenor and plectrim banjos. It consists of a spoon-shaped "soft-pedal" that controlls a spring-loaded mute mechanism inside the rim. When operated by the pedal, the mute applies varying pressure to the head underneath the bridge. There are lots of really cool sounds possible.
Dan has adapted a B&D knee-mute to one of his 5-string banjos for clawhammer playing. He uses it with great effect!
Here is the "soft-pedal" on an old B&D tenor:
Here is the internal mechanism:
Edited by - jbalch on 11/29/2009 07:03:32
jbalch - Posted - 11/29/2009: 19:54:48
Dan: Check out this photo of the silver plating on my 1925 B&D #2. Not too shabby for an 84 year-old player. Silver might be a good choice for your ebony banjo too.
Edited by - jbalch on 11/29/2009 20:00:21
jbalch - Posted - 11/30/2009: 06:37:30
Dan: I remember that this came up when you and David were discussing his ebony banjo project...some of the Bacon & Day #6 banjos (and #9s too I think) were made of ebony. I think the pearl inlay on the rim is an elegant touch.
There are examples here:
snapmania.com/album/CID-u00515...5:52.html
snapmania.com/album/CID-u00515...5:53.html[/url
snapmania.com/album/CID-u00515...5:56.html
Edited by - jbalch on 11/30/2009 06:40:14
DanKnowles - Posted - 11/30/2009: 18:12:57
Bob Robert,
I got to fooling with your idea today. I grabbed up a goat skin head, stained it black and mounted it. Neve having tried this trick before I was pleasantly surprised how it came out. What do y'all think? Here are some photos of the process.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/02/2009: 20:36:59
After a couple of days spent teaching banjo, guitar and the inlay arts, I have a bit of ebony banjo time. Much like before we go breaking down the clamps, scraping the squeeze out, pre-pairing the next layer, gluing and clamping. One should note that when the ring is first glued, rolled and hose clamped, but yet before the cauls are applied, it is a good idea to clean up as much glue squeeze out as possible. This saves a lot of work later. Also, I've found that when tightening the hose clamp it is a good idea to put a clamp on the hose clamp tightening apparatus so the clamp does not twist. This helps keep the hose clamp from breaking down quite so soon.
Now the waiting begins again. Tomorrow comes the real fun of doing the capping of the rim.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/03/2009: 17:43:21
Here is a job that I find a lot of fun. I will be making and installing the cap rings. There will be two thickness of cap rings. A maple 1/8" ring and a 1/4" figured ebony ring. I made the blocks up for each back when I was cutting blocks so all I have to do is grab them off the shelf. first I take the maple and lay all eight of them out on a piece of wax paper. Picking up one block at a time I apply cyno (super glue, to the uninitiated) to only one end. For this job I like using the thick glue, it is a bit of a slower set. Unfortunately this day I have no thick, so I apply a whole bunch of glue to one end and carefully position and place them together. Holding the blocks tightly in position I squirt them with accelerator. They set almost instantly. I move on, gluing one at a time making up the ring. The last joint is always a bit difficult, but if I just remember to clamp the ring to the bench, it gets real easy to hold the joint together. The ebony ring is built just like the maple.
After the rings are complete all of the glue is scraped and sanded and the rings are hand sanded evenly using the glass bottomed sanding plane. Glue is smeared on the rim and first the maple then the ebony rings are laid in. One note and although this may be a bit late in the describing process, when laying up blocks all of the joints should be staggered, none of the joints should be above another. The new sandwich is now placed in the cauls and clamped. The waiting begins again.
DanKnowles - Posted - 12/05/2009: 06:00:46
RIM TURNING DAY!
OK today is the day I have been wishing for. A chance to be covered from head to toe with fine black ebony saw dust! There ain't many days when a I get to hold several hundred dollars of wood in my hands, set it to spinning in my lathe and realize that one bad move with my gouge and I have acquired some very high priced firewood.
Before I ever place the blank on the lathe, I want to remove as much wood as posable.
I lay out the basic circle shape on the glued up blank using a oversized template. I mark the wood with a white pencil which makes the lines much easer to see. I take the blank to the bandsaw and cut the outside shape.
After removing as much of the waste wood as posable, the blank is mounted on the lathe head and I begin turning. The lathe spins the rim at about 400 rpm which is moving fast for such a big piece of wood. The greatest difficulty in turning this ebony rim is keeping the tools sharp. It feels as though I spend more time sharpening than cutting. The first job is truing the blank. The sides must be square to the bottom or top and the od. just so. Because of my chuck head I am forced to cut the outside, top, fit the tone ring and about 3/4 of the inside then remove the rim, flip it over and cut the bottom and the remainder of the inside. After all is trued up, I cut a rabbit (slot) for the purfling. It is installed by diving the purfling into the slot with a small ball-peen hammer. It is glued using cyno which is applied both inside the slot before the purfling is driven in and the applied on the outside, I want that thing glued. The purfling is then trued to the sides with a scraper and the entire rim is sanded to 800 grit on the spinning lathe. I apply a thin coat of spirit varnish to the rim (as it spins), pull it off the lathe and admire the beautiful grain.
Next I'll start getting the neck and inlay stuff together.
maryzcox - Posted - 12/05/2009: 06:01:03
Dan,
Beautiful banjo--know that ebony sounds awesome.
Best wishes,
Mary Z. Cox
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