Life as experienced by Kyle Abbott.
This morning, I unwrapped the rope ‘n fixin’s on the Dou and gave it a stress test by lightly pulling on opposite tends of it and throwing it up in the air a few inches. Held together like a tank!
Soon, I’m gonna cut out the whole and then it’s off to another carving adventure: The headpiece for the Shamisen called the Tenjin!
Today I glued the Dou. Several times before hand, I planned out what I’d use to hold it together. I got dowels, sticks and wedges ‘n rope. After trying it out, I pasted the glue on. A lot oozed out when I clamped which was a good sign of a good clampin’. After putting in dowels and sticks to where I could not stick another wedge in, I left it alone. I didn’t bother to set it on the counter because it was already sitting there, of course.
I’m getting the tenon ready for the other end of the body. I’m making the end of the rod into a circle. That came out good. I made a test mortise with some scrap wood lying around. It worked pretty well. Since the way the neck was put on the rod, it tilts ever so slighty to the right. Not much, but I think it will be enough to maybe mess up the way the strings will be on the neck. Well, since the top mortise is a little loose, I can tilt it the other therefor make the neck fit on straight down the middle of the body! I’ll cut the mortise tomorrow.
I also did the little artistic thing at the end of the fretboard. You can see it clearly in the picture but it’s profound and not worth mentioning what it is.
What I’m saying generally makes sense, right?
It’s time for the Mortise and Tenon! My long awaited and long practiced adventure I had been preparing for. Cutting out the hole was actually much easier than I had thought. As I got lower in the hole, the hole became smaller ’cause I didn’t chisel straight down, I naturally sloped it inward. Of course, I sloped it waaaaayyy too much but that doesn’t matter at all. I just have to 
take more out, that’s all. At least it didn’t slope outward in the hole, that is what I was afraid of.
After I got through the hole, I turned the piece around and saw that the wood kinda splintered and peeled. That’s when I made the last strike or two with the chisel pushing out the last bit of wood in the hole, it was still connected to the wood on the other end which made it peel. It’s really hard to describe. I’ll just say that what I shoulda done was at the end before I broke through, I should turned it around to sever the wood from that end.
So I proceded to slowely chisel out the wood so that the rod would fit in snugly. When I got it about an inc
h from it’s destination, I got it snug enough to where I’d have to rock the Dou back ‘n forth to get it really tight. Unfortunatly, that wouldn’t work ’cause once the Dou is all glued together in a circle, it couldn’t be tightened by wiggling it. No, it’d have to be tight just by pushing it together. Well, to my delight, I got it absolutely perfect at the end! It was real easy to slide in and at the very last millimeter, it tightened down with little force. That was a good mortise ‘n tenon! Unfortunately, part of the hole slid in farther than the other side and when it’d be glued together, the neck would be slanted and the strings would be off the neck. I had no choice but to sand the stubborn end down which lost the whole tightness thingy. Fortunately, on the other end of the body, there will be another hole to where the rod will stick out. I’ll make that tight. Besides, I can also put in a shim to make it tight too.
Well, I declamped the rod and the Sao and the rod held on nicely. I scraped away excess glue and kinda made the crack (where the rod connected to the Sao) smoother ’cause I was ready to cut out the hole in the Dou! The thought of it was a little harrowing but once I started, it was a piece of cake to cut out. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s first show you the picture of the almost finished Sao (I still have to put on the Tenjin and do a little artistic thing to the end of the fretboard.
It’s a nice pair, the Sao and Dou.