guitarman8491 - Posted - 08/19/2015:  07:18:08

Don..so very happy to hear that Chris is making such a wonderful recovery..God bless him and your family. Have a safe trip home.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/19/2015:  20:08:47

Dave & Doug,

Thanks!

We just made it home! Chris called me and he made it home today! 

More in the morning!

kwl - Posted - 08/19/2015:  20:34:36

Good news! Thanks for letting us know.

Dave1climber - Posted - 08/19/2015:  20:43:17

Chris home!!!    Still pulling for that complete recovery.

guitarman8491 - Posted - 08/20/2015:  02:40:36

Had to be one of the happiest calls you have received...agree with Dave..Team Chris "still pulling for that complete recovery"!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/20/2015:  05:33:13

Thanks Kenneth, Dave & Doug! It was a real treat!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/20/2015:  10:49:02

THE TRIP PHOTOS

It's something fun (for me anyway) to look back over the trip photos and remember. After all, other than the events of the moments that we exist in everything is memory.

That said, here we'll step back and see if my memory still works.

Thursday night (the night before we left out) Sam & his family came over and we made this photo of all the boys (L-R) Sam & Caleb, (my brother) Kenny, me & Chandan...

Here are the travelers taking a break from the highway. We were the ones who made the trip. (L-R) Me, Jenny & Chandan. 

Here we are at BHO Member (Shake-Boy) Paul Kosiewicz's homemade Icecream Shop, just out side of Cleveland, Ohio. Again thanks, that was very thoughtful. I wish we'd had time to stop on the way back home. 

Up in Port Colborne, Ontario Canada, Chandan checks out his uncle Harold's Tesla (model S). The next day he asked and the next day he drove it! That is some car. Harold took us for a ride and when he tromped on the gas it was like an airplane taking off.

Chandan on the sailboard windsurfing. He's up and Harold celebrates! 

Sunday (at my step-brother Harold & Jane's) for my mother's 90th. birthday celebration. The food that Jane & Delphine whipped up was amazing! There was 26 folks at the meal, all Knowles' or Dick's or their spouses. That's my mom second from the right...

Here is my nephew Martin who is a very fine photographer from Vancouver, B.C. These next few photos are his....

Mom...

The batch of us...

Listening to my older brother Walter, who is a fine professional organist in the Seattle, Washington aria...

Cameron ( a fine Cape Britton fiddler, violinist & teacher) from Alberta, Canada and Harold...

Camron's son...

My daughter Jenny...

The cake...

Mom opening presents...

My present to Mom. It's called Night & Day...

Mom and (Harold & Jane's daughter) Emily...

My sister-in-law Lorelette & Walter at the piano singing...

My brother Alan and I on the Cavaquinho's...

Chandan on the bass...

Camron & Alan playing "Doggie Dreams"...

Alan, Harold, Camron and I playing...

Walt & I practicing Amazing Grace....

A new waltz & tone poem "Flying Ponies" on the banjo, base & piano...

Chandan & Jenny at the Canadian Niagara Falls...

The Maid of the Mist...

Goin' in...

Tuesday we loaded up and went to see Bill Rickard! Chandan, Jenny and Martin decided they'd like to spend the day in Toronto. So here they are in the back seat of the Prius heading to Hamilton, Ontario to catch the GO Train...

Alan and I headed up to spend a most delightful afternoon with one of my best friends in this banjo business, Bill Rickard & his fabulous wife Jen.

Bill, that is one special lady you have there! I'm not sure that they make them any better (well unless it is my wife Debbie).

Here we are with Sean & Bill...

After arriving at Rickard Banjos in Aurora, Ontario. We were invited over to Bill & Jen's for lunch. Oh boy but the food was great! Check out this cheese cake Jen had for us. If that don't make yer mouth water nothin' will!

Sean with John Herrmann's Rickard banjo. This has been John's primary banjo. Its back at the Banjo Spa for a little TLC. Won't you look at all those banjos back there!

Bill, Sean and I in the shop with a new Rickard banjo. This one is a real hoss too! Whoever winds up with this one is sure gonna be lucky!

Yesterday we set out to come home way before dawn even thought of breaking. We drove hard trading drivers until we got to Louisville where my son John & his family live. We went out to a new Mexican restaurant that's  just around the corner from his place, visited and ate our fill. Here is John, Jenny and me....

John and his wonderful wife Nancy...

Well we arrived home about 10 PM and today jumped right back into it. Chandan to school, Debbie to Chris & Toni's place & me, well I took Chandan to school then went to help out at Chris & Toni's, the shop, the bank, post office and now here...

It was great to go but it is wonderful to be home!

See Ya soon!

Dave1climber - Posted - 08/20/2015:  11:38:15

Dan

From all of the photos it would look as if you had a wonderful trip with a great group.

That beautiful woman that is your mother looks as if she is not a minute past sixty five!   Good living, music helps.

What is the latest on Chris?

Steven M - Posted - 08/20/2015:  14:02:38

Wow, your mum is a spry ninety year old!

Nels - Posted - 08/20/2015:  16:57:37

90???? number got flipped....must be 60........

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/21/2015:  04:25:47

Dave, Steven & Nels,

I thoroughly agree, she certainly does not seam to be 90.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/21/2015:  05:07:31

TAILPIECE TIME

When I was up at the RICKARD BANJO shop I picked up this beautiful tailpiece from Bill. This one is a new design that he has begun to produce with some slight changes. Like nearly all of the banjo parts that he produces it is solid heavy brass and very well machined. I really like this one's shapely design. It is a perfect canvas for engraving.

This tailpiece is adjustable for all axis, right, left and up or downward for string pressure. Also there are no sharp edges to chafe or break strings.

I'll be using this one on my nylon strung banjo where I am hoping for a bit of upper register improvement. 

Being that this one is in raw brass and that I like doing stuff like this I figured that I'd have some fun with it.

First off I took each of the adjustment nuts and chucked them up in the lathe...

And turned it a just bit...

The whole tailpiece was placed in some patina solution and darkened down...

Then I decided that I'd like some texture engraving on the backside so with a straight graver I covered it with wiggle cuts...

There they are after re-patinaing them and installing it on "Mississippi" . I'm pleased by the almost Victorian industrial look. Please don't look at my bad 5th. string tie job. Or the fact that I hadden't clipped the end of the 4th. either!

Being as the tailpiece is on the "Mississippi" banjo it seamed to need  a portrait of  Captain John Cannon, who was the famous captain of the Robert E. Lee. I think that next time I change strings on this banjo, I'll engrave his name, in a flag above the portrait.

The overall clarity and tone of this nylon strung banjo was much improved with this new tailpiece. 

Look who showed up at our house today! He's looking good!

More Soon!

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 08/21/2015 05:11:24

kwl - Posted - 08/21/2015:  06:05:11

Dan, the tailpiece is really nice and I like the work you did on it, but the picture of Chris is fantastic! He looks really good for all that he has been through. Prayers continue for his full recovery.

Ken

Dave1climber - Posted - 08/21/2015:  07:48:49

quote:

---

Originally posted by kwl

 

Dan, the tailpiece is really nice and I like the work you did on it, but the picture of Chris is fantastic! He looks really good for all that he has been through. Prayers continue for his full recovery.

Ken

---

What he said.  Still pulling for Chris and a full recovery.

Edited by - Dave1climber on 08/21/2015 07:51:29

kvdkieft - Posted - 08/21/2015:  09:55:02

I love the family photos! It was cool to see Lorelette & Walter again. I think I haven't seen them for 40 some years!! Your Mom looks great as always! A test drive in a Tesla! YES SIR!!! My dream car!!! So many more highlights of your pictures I won't bore you and your fans! Thanks again!!!

cbcarlisle - Posted - 08/21/2015:  12:46:25

Great pix! Couldn't have enjoyed them more if they were my own family. All the best to your Mom.

Nels - Posted - 08/22/2015:  03:17:00

quote:

---

Originally posted by Dave1climber

 

quote:

---

Originally posted by kwl

 

Dan, the tailpiece is really nice and I like the work you did on it, but the picture of Chris is fantastic! He looks really good for all that he has been through. Prayers continue for his full recovery.

Ken

---

What he said.  Still pulling for Chris and a full recovery.

---

......... and I'll add my best wishes as well....way to go Chris!!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/23/2015:  05:17:06

Ken, Dave & Nels,

Thanks

Kenny,

I gave Walt your contact info. He'd like to reach out to James.

Curt,

Thanks and Thank you for the book, that is way too cool! Did you do all of the lettering? It is very nice! Never a fan of Nixon I guess I'll now learn his Fairwell!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/23/2015:  05:58:34

SATURDAY

Good Sunday morning to y'all! I just sat down at the computer to play catch up from yesterday. 

The day began yesterday at 3AM. We had to get up so early to be able to have my daughter Jenny at the airport at 6. I'm not sure who booked that crazy flight but I think his initials are Dan Knowles. 

After saying goodby to Jenny I drove home arriving just in time to teach my Saturday guitar building class.

This day for the fellas seamed like a sanding day. Both Kevin and Zeb became well aquainted with the scratchy paper!

Zeb started out scraping his binding level first though...

As Kevin went to the back room to whoosh the orbital palm sander around the top of his guitar...

As they sanded and scraped I bent linings for the "Yin & Yang" guitar...

Once Kevin had sanded his top to 400 grit, I gave some instruction on engraving pearl. His rosette is copied from a German guitar that I have that was built around 1840. It has a lovely pearl & abalone engraved rosette. This is what he is trying to reproduce. So far he has done a great job. 

For anyone interested this is how I precede...

First the lines to be engraved are drawn on the pearl. Here I'm showing the use of a scratch awl (that I've turned a new handle to fit my hand better) to place in the initial lines. Sometimes I will do this and sometimes I'll just grab up a graver and go to town...

On this one I followed with a graver. This is my hand position for engraving...

While Kevin engraved & Zeb sanded I laminated the already bent Spanish cedar into linings. These started out about 3 inches wide. Once the glue has set, they are ripped out on the bandsaw and shaped by hand....

PROOF: Zeb sanding...

As in the earlier discription the linings were readyed and now are being glued to the sides...

When I was in Canada I got a very interesting bubuinga stave rim from Bill Rickard. I've wanted to see how the thing would turn with the grain 90 degrees from usual. I'm planning on caping it with maple, binding it with ebony and using purfiling and using a bracket band to keep it together once the stresses of tensioning a head are applied.

After figuring how deep I want the rim I lay it out...

Sometimes I'll do this marking once the rim is on the lathe, here I used my finger as a depth gage and just marked around the rim....

The first cut. Taking the excess off...

After the cut for the bracket band was made I checked it out. And the fit was good!

Cutting across the grain was an interesting experience. It took much more tool sharpening than usual. Also my initial fears of the rim exploding proved to be tottaly ungrounded. All is well!

Soon I'll add the cap, bindings and purfilings.

More Soon

In 

A

Luthier's Life

guitarman8491 - Posted - 08/23/2015:  06:11:32

Dan..Have been away a few days and just finished looking at all the family pics..during your trip to celebrate your mom's birthday. What a wonderful event..you mom looks so happy and a great looking family!

Dave1climber - Posted - 08/23/2015:  07:22:23

A very busy Saturday.

I recall a fiddle that you were doing some restoration on, just wondering how that project is doing.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/25/2015:  19:51:00

Doug,

Thanks, we had a great time!

Dave,

The old fiddle is moving along. I'll post some photos of it when I get back from the river on Monday.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/30/2015:  16:27:11

ON THE QUEEN!

We've been back on the Queen of the Mississippi this week having a great time ! The we being Eddie Coffey and me. 

The folks have been great to perform for, with one more performance tonight before we head home in the morning....

Friday we went over to the Memphis College of Arts for the opening of an art show. The coolest thing (at least for Eddie and me) in the show was this piece. Glitter glued to snow cone cups and interesting lights...

Here is our upbound bBanjo 102 class, just like today's bunch they got the clawhammer lick down pat!

Here I'm with one of my lifelong heroes... Tom Sawyer. Tom is from Ontario and is joining us in tonights show...

Teaching the dotting technique....

The ever great downbound class!

With another hero Bill McEuen... only this one is from Australia!

More Soon!!!

guitarman8491 - Posted - 08/30/2015:  16:34:55

Dan, Looks like another great group of folks!! Safe travels back home.

Dave1climber - Posted - 08/30/2015:  20:33:10

Once again, a paid vacation.   A great teacher will have great students. 

DEmery - Posted - 08/31/2015:  16:25:39

Dan it has been a while since I caught you post in my feed....so, I had to catch up. You have covered a lot of ground. Glad you had a good time with family and out on the boat. I will catch you at the shop soon. With that Ying Yang body coming together it should be time to do some guitar binding soon and then on to the necks for that three batch of guitars going. David E.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/31/2015:  16:43:45

Doug & Dave,

David,

During this time home I hope to get the Yin & Yang guitar glued together. Then it will be big binding time for all three.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 08/31/2015:  17:02:04

MONDAY

HOME!

My pal Tyler Andel posted this on Facebook today, I can't hep but pass this bit of truth along....

Here are a couple of shots from Eddie Coffey and my Queen of the Mississippi riverboat trip.

Gas price today in Jackson, Tennessee...

Eddie at the Memphis College of the Arts.

More soon!

guitarman8491 - Posted - 08/31/2015:  17:15:51

Good ones..I do like those gas prices

Edited by - guitarman8491 on 08/31/2015 17:16:52

Dave1climber - Posted - 08/31/2015:  17:38:32

Up date on Chris?

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/01/2015:  16:53:53

Dave,

Chris is home (his home), doing rehab several days a week, getting better each day.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/01/2015:  17:46:14

TUESDAY

Yesterday evening (after asking) I went over to my neighbors Jim & Fiona's house and dug some sassafras roots. It was quite a job digging through a lot of other roots for just the real thing. And I had to get a bunch of it. 20 inches of pencil thick root per gallon.

So this morning my good friend Joe Snow and I brewed up some root beer.

4 gallons of the concoction.

We've been talking about brewing up a batch for some time so when he called me on the boat the other day, we figured today would be the day.

What the brew required:

4 gallons of water

80 inches of fresh sassafras root (cut in small pieces)

2 vanilla beans (cut in tiny pieces)

4 oz. wintergreen

2 oz. cherry bark

5 star anise pods (ground)

1 cup resins (chopped up)

8 cups of dark brown sugar

6 teaspoons of ale yeast

Everything but the yeast was simmered for about 45 minutes. Then the sugar was added and allowed to cook for 5 more minutes.

The whole mess was allowed to cool to the room temperature, strained and the yeast was added.

It was bottled up and day after tomorrow we'll stick it off in the refrigerators. In a couple more days after that it'll be ready to drink (I hope).

See, now you can make yer own!

This was my half of the batch.

Hope none of it blows up...

I believe it was Dave 1 climber who asked about the progress on the inlayed fiddle.

So today I shot some photos...

A rope binding close up...

The fingerboard inlay...

And back progress. This is a lot slower than I initially figured. Hopefully it will be complete when I head out a week from Wednesday...

More Soon!

Dave1climber - Posted - 09/01/2015:  20:37:05

Dan

Thanks for the up date on Chris, he is sill in my thoughts.  The rehab is just as important as the earlier healing.

Home made Root beer!  A great summer drink, also very good as a root beer float.  



The fiddle is looking very good.   A whole bunch of very meticulous art work. 

Kaelri - Posted - 09/02/2015:  13:23:32

What a beautiful fiddle. Thanks for the Chris updates! So glad to hear of his progress!

In your Monday's post, we loved that picture of Eddie. Looks like he didn't get his vaccinations! Don't get too close to him, I think he's got polka dot fever! 

Edited by - Kaelri on 09/02/2015 13:24:07

tylerandal - Posted - 09/02/2015:  17:02:14

Dan!

So great to see Chris doing well and at your house.  Also, that fiddle is looking great!  Are you using abalone or pearl?  It looks like it could be either from the photos.  You are the man though!  it all looks so great!

Also, save me some root beer this time!!!!!  I've been wanting to try it forever.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/02/2015:  18:32:25

Dave,

Thanks! We are so glad Chris is now back at his home (which is just across our little town).

Ellen,

One should not have all the fun we do!

Tyler,

I'm using both as per the original remaining pearl work. The main problem that I have is that I'd like to fill every available space with the glittery stuff. But that would not match the original work. 

Come on over and get you some this weekend. It should be ready to drink by then.  I'll put your name on a bottle!

Just please don't ride that motorbike. I'm not sure we could take another one.

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 09/02/2015 18:36:50

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/02/2015:  19:23:11

WEDNESDAY

It was a busy day at the shop today. Hollis is removing the failing binding from a old Gretsch guitar and I'm pushing hard to complete a bunch of projects before I head out for a short trip on Wednesday next week.

Most of today was spent on the old fiddle (this is one project in the above list)...

The pearl cutting on this is so much quicker than normal, just a pair of end nippers nip, nip, nipping away at the chunks of pearl so they fit in their arias. These are not cut close at all. just chunked up and stuck in...

After lunch I had a big aria of pear glued so I decided to fill in the background. This is epoxy with black tint. After it is mixed it is heated (in the glass cut) with a heat gun to make it thin and flow better. This pointed dowel made dropping the epoxy in place much easier....

After all of the glue is dripped on top of the pearl, the epoxy is again lightly heated (with the heat gun) to thin and allow all of the bubbles to escape...

Some of the extra glue was used to fix Eddie's bodhran. It was dropped and cracked on the last trip. On with a clamp...

And a bunch more...

The rim that was on the lathe last week finally was put together. I had to use several different j-hooks as I didn't have enough longer ones.

This is a test of the viability of a rim made with vertical instead of horizontal grain. This one is made from bubinga. I cranked down a lot on this head to see if there would be rim failure. So far it seams to be holding up well. Also the tap tone is quite clear and powerful.

The only real problems that I found with the rim (to date) is the difficulty of turning and the instability regarding shape in turning. 

This one has been capped with maple, bound with ebony and has two strips of wooden bass purfiling installed to promote stability. 

It will be interesting to see how it holds up. If it does the perhaps this winter I'll make a banjo from it....

MORE SOON!

Dave1climber - Posted - 09/02/2015:  21:16:10

Dan

That black epoxy looks bad, and not the good "bad".  However I know that when the excess is removed the result will be gorgeous!



I could be wrong, but I think that with that bracket band, tone ring, and tension hoop that rim is going no where but on the heel of a neck.  Looking good.

guitarman8491 - Posted - 09/03/2015:  05:24:26

Dan..I was happy to read that Chris's recovery is coming along and he is making good progress. My prayers continue for him.

The fiddle is really taking shape. Can't wait to see it when it is completed. The inlay work and rope binding are really special.

DEmery - Posted - 09/03/2015:  16:33:56

Dan what is the theory on the vertical oriented grain? Is this a "see what difference it might make project?" David E.

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/03/2015:  17:33:23

Dave,

Perhaps that epoxy will look better in tonight's post!

We'll see what happens in the future....

Doug,

Thanks!

David,

Mr Helix could probably let you in on the theory better than I. Basically the idea is that the sound waves will travel quicker and in a straight line down the rim, top to bottom. This in theory will create a 'better' sound, whatever better may be.

I am quite interested to see what this does. This does not inhabit a place in the world of tried and true. Over the years I've found that many of the 'tried and true' rules of instrument building are only suggestions, fraught with surprises. You know what I mean there, having been in on a couple of those discoveries.

I do know that this rim is not as stable as a conventional ply laminated rim. That was proved during the turning.

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 09/03/2015 17:34:14

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/03/2015:  17:54:09

THURSDAY

Another busy day down at Knowles String Instruments. 

Guitars & banjos in and out!

Here is a Gold Tone I worked on today for a fella from Clarksville, Tennessee. It had some pretty deep fret wear on the first 3 or 4 frets. This is not all that unusual. It is interesting how many people will think that frets need replacement when all that is really needed is leveling and re-crowning. That is just what this one recieved along with a good cleaning, new strings and a setup...

Ok, here is how the inlaid fiddle looks after the epoxy was sanded off...

Just before I left the shop tonight I made this progress shot. More purfiling in along with more pearl...

MORE SOON!!!

Crusty - Posted - 09/03/2015:  18:21:14

Dan, I think the issue that you had with turning the vertical grain has to do with your lathe cutting tool.  Thinking about the grain a bit, it's apparent that doing this is a crosscut situation rather than a rip and (just as in saw blades) the tooth profile needs to be different for crosscutting than ripping.  I think you need a lathe tool with two cutting edges, a knife edge which leads the main cutting edge and slices the wood fibers before they're removed by the main edge.

Having done some boat work in the past, I've made a couple of spars using the birdsmouth technique, which produces a vertical grain hollow tube with a six or eight sided profile that usually has to be made round and I've found that it doesn't take that long with a sharp plane to take the tube to a shape approaching round, followed by finer rounding with a belt sander, all applied in the direction of the grain.  Here's a picture the illustrates the birdsmouth method.

Birds mouth mast section

 

Dave1climber - Posted - 09/03/2015:  22:21:43

Dan

The fiddle is looking super!  Somehow I am not surprised.  It would seem that anything less than wonderful is just not going to come out of your shop.  

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/04/2015:  19:15:17

Mike,

Thanks for the advice.  I fortunately had very little trouble with grain tear out. The major problem I had was that the rim did not compress in the jaws evenly and this created some inconsistences in the turning.

Dave,

Thanks! More coming up tonight!

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/04/2015:  19:35:59

FRIDAY

SECRET EXPOSED!!!

Onward marches the inlaid  fiddle! 

This is how it's done. First the purfiling is bent to shape and half glued in. Next it is cut to length and fully glued in...

Then pieces of pearl & abalone are cut with end nippers, fit in spot and glued. 

Here all the pearl is glued in...

Epoxy is mixed with black tint in this glass bowel. The reason that this glass one is used, is so the epoxy can be heated to flow better in and around all of the pearl....

The epoxy being applied...

And heated with this heat gun. This increasesthe flow and almost eliminates bubbles. One has to be careful he, too much heat and good by fiddle...

Now it's time to wait and cure. Saturday I may have time to sand it flat...

MORE SOON!

Dave1climber - Posted - 09/04/2015:  20:11:23

Dan

Great looking progress on the fiddle.  All of that black epoxy from a distance looks good.  Close up not so good I would think. 

Nels - Posted - 09/05/2015:  02:58:13

Nice looking work on the fiddle! ...my continued prayers for Chris and his rehab...

Dan Knowles - Posted - 09/05/2015:  11:06:15

Dave,

I think that the epoxy is interesting looking (or perhaps I should say was interesting). In just a moment I'll post more progress photos.

Nels,

Thanks & Thanks!

Edited by - Dan Knowles on 09/05/2015 11:07:28