Project: Kantele

Health and Safety disclaimer:

 

I am using some power-tools in this project in a slightly creative manner, this can get yourself hurt if things go wrong.

 

As a daytime job I work with similar equipment on a larger scale, so I know that you can lose a finger or two if things happen to go wrong.

 

Protection and security is key, if your workbench wobbles, dont do it, if you cant secure either the tools, or workpiece securely things can go wrong.

 

 

 

What is a Kantele in the first place?

 

A Kantele is a traditional instrument dating back several hundreds of years, and actually holds a interesting place in old official finnish mythology, and as such is also the national instrument for us.

 

The basic idea of it is to marry a guitar with a harp, but the key feature of a kantele is the straight steel strings (not wound), that make a very metallic sound, resulting in a almost music box like effect.

 

 

(She's playing it at a rather slow tempo, but I like this a lot more, as it gives a much more mythical sensation to it, than the actual tempo as heard here.).

 

 

There are several kinds of katele available, starting from the 5-string school version, that is the most basic of instruments in the family, up to the ultra modern 39-stringed concert models that are hideously expensive as I found out while doing some minor research.

 

I decided to try and make a miniature modern version, eventhough I could have gone to my grandpa's place to take photos of an actual century old multi stringed one, thats a lot more boxy in construction.

 

 

Phase.1: The Prototype.

 

This is the first rough attempt to see is it even possible to make this with as little expense as possible.

 

If you dont count in tools (I need them for almost everyday stuff too) the price for this including everything was set to 10 euros, where the bulk of the cost went into the pine board.

 

 

Scaling it.

 

I havent seen a concert kantele in person so I have no idea how big it actually should be, but judging from photos and videos the body of the instrument should be roughly as wide as the players arm is long.

 

Taking a wikipedia picture, and making some guesswork, I resized it in elements so the printed product should be roughly the size I wanted, and the first try gave a close enough result to being work.

 

Yonkko with the printed image, size is just about right considering reference material I've seen compared to the players hands

 

Making the body.

 

Time to bring out the power tools.

 

What I planned to use on making the body were a hand router, belt-sander, and jigsaw. I also ended up using my table saw to trim down one half of the body, but I think there could have been better options

 

It all starts out by tracing the edges of the instrument halves on the pine board.

 

(See the mistake I did here?)

 

then I traced in a roughly 5mm inner line where I would be carving out material with my router.

 

 

After the material has been carved away from the halves, its time to take the jigsaw and remove them from the board.

 

 

this is where I noticed my little fumble, and did the proper mirror image half, but the extra half came in very handy lateron.

 

Now that the two halves are ready, I decided to slim down the halves a little with my table saw. I think for future attempts I'll probably step them down with the router, or use a big piece of sandpaper to sand them down, as a slightly more safe procedure.

 

while the two were still apart I drilled (or grinded would be more accurate) the hole on the cover piece.

 

 

after that, it was time to glue the two halves together.

 

 

After the glue had dried, it was only a matter of sanding the rough edges so the two were alike.

To do this I bolted my belt sander upside down on my work table.

 

 

and so the body was complete.

 

Trimmings.

 

Remember that extra piece I had made? I decided to make the step on the tuning edge of the strings out of it.

 

same procedure as before, although sanding the inner edge into its final shape before glueing it into place.

 

Piece of the thinned pine board with the rough drawing of the shape Im after.

 

being glued into place.

 

With the outer edge sanded down to the body

 

Stringing it.

 

for this prototype I didnt want to invest in fancy hardware just yet, so in the end I opted for 0,5mm wire, and threadnails that cost about 3-4 euros in total.

 

Measuring up the places for the nails is simple enough as long as you remember to use the long straight edge as a reference point.

 

The fixed end should be at a slight angle, and the tuning edge nails should be about in the middle of the step that was put in earlier which I quite hilariously failed... but...

 

First two strings attached

 

The tiny cutters I used for the job. The trick was to use enough force to be able to pull the string without cutting it.

 

I actually fumbled again, apparently getting mixed up while measuring up the tuning edge nail spots, and ending up with one straight edge nail more than the tuning edge, but reversing the winding side near the end of the narrow end gave a acceptable result.

 

All strings attached. Not great, but for a first attempt not too shabby I think.

 

 

Covering up the the evidence.

 

Basicly at this point the thing is ready to go, and it actually works ... ish.

 

But I wanted to make the cover for the straight edge as seen on the concert instruments, so it was out with the router again to make a step in a piece of pine board. making a rough cut again, and sanding the edge to desired lenght.

 

Fabricated stepped piece for the cover.

 

Rough shape cut out of the fabricated piece.

 

The only thing left is to glue it into place.

 

With the final sanding of getting the coverpiece to meet flush with the body, a quick vacbleep, and its ready for its debut.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After-thaughts:

 

Despite a minor crack that appeared between the string cover and body after sanding it down, Im actually impressed with the result eventhough I say so myself.

 

Im sort of astonished how light it ended up beeing, a direct result of hollowing out the two halves of the body. It feels light in a uncanny way.

 

I didnt expect to hear any sort of tune out of it, but while the metal strings were still under tension (since they are only wound without any kind of locking they tend to unwind as you work, or pluck on it), it gave out a satisfying and on occasion surprisingly low sound.

 

 

Improvements for future versions would include better looking hardware, and adding a reinforcement for the straight edge of the strings, since the nails started to bend as I wound up the strings too tight.

Congratulations You're crazy in most positive way of being crazy

 

But I think you should cover it with some lacquer. Instruments are rarely made from "unfinished" wood.

Congratulations You're crazy in most positive way of being crazy

 

But I think you should cover it with some lacquer. Instruments are rarely made from "unfinished" wood.

I quote every single word.

Congratulations You're crazy in most positive way of being crazy

 

But I think you should cover it with some lacquer. Instruments are rarely made from "unfinished" wood.

 

I quote every single word.

 

Thank you, and thank you.

 

The lack of laquer is explained by the prototype nature of it (plus I dont have anything else than car laquer in a rattle can in the house at the moment).

 

If I get around to phase 2 with brass or plated pins, and a minor structure update (thaught of a way to make the body without fearing cutting my fingers off with the saw) toned laquer will be essential.

This is awesome! Very impressive.

Wow! That's so cool!

This is completely over the top awesome! And I thought I made some fun stuff from wood. You sir rock the house!

 

That is one heck of a cool projec and it's impressive how detailed the process is. I am SO glad you took pics all along the way for this because I LOVE seeing it! All the ways you have to work the wood and what tools you used and how you used them, it's just way cool to me. Thank you!

 

Congrats on making an epic piece for your girls. Even if this is *just* a prototype as you put it, it looks great and shows off your talent well.

 

 

 

Billy

Wow, this is really amazing! Great work!

I look forward to phase 2, if you ever get to it.

Finished wood will look wonderful!

Good job. When you make the next one try making it out of hard wood ( it will make the brass wardwere pop and look much better). It will be a little harder to work with. but you will get a better look. laquer is fine if you have it on hand but a can of clear gloss spraypaint works the same. Just do thin coats at a time, about 4 to 5 coats should do. But what do i know about anything.

This is awesome! Very impressive.

 

Wow! That's so cool!

 

Wow, this is really amazing! Great work!

I look forward to phase 2, if you ever get to it.

Finished wood will look wonderful!

 

Thank you all. Im still a bit surprised myself how nice it turned out despite being a test so far.

 

This is completely over the top awesome! And I thought I made some fun stuff from wood. You sir rock the house!

 

That is one heck of a cool projec and it's impressive how detailed the process is. I am SO glad you took pics all along the way for this because I LOVE seeing it! All the ways you have to work the wood and what tools you used and how you used them, it's just way cool to me. Thank you!

 

Congrats on making an epic piece for your girls. Even if this is *just* a prototype as you put it, it looks great and shows off your talent well.

 

Thanks, the Irony is that back in the days of school my woodwork teacher was hardly impressed with my skills... I guess five years fiddling with grinding and shaping carbon fibre composites has made a difference.. heh.

 

I think you could find a ready made souvenir type thing in similar scale somewhere in the country for sure, but I just thaught would it be possible, concocted a plan, baught the belt sander, and went for it.

 

I like build shots too, since I havent grown out of the typical boy phase about wanting to know what makes something tick, or how its put together.

 

And also they help if someone else wants to give it a shot -- I mean, I made this, and im no wizard.

 

But just be carefull if you do try.

 

I know im yanking on about safety, but my boss at work for instance has lost three of his fingers in a shop accident at home, so Im reminded every work day that accidents can happen.

 

 

Good job. When you make the next one try making it out of hard wood ( it will make the brass wardwere pop and look much better). It will be a little harder to work with. but you will get a better look. laquer is fine if you have it on hand but a can of clear gloss spraypaint works the same. Just do thin coats at a time, about 4 to 5 coats should do. But what do i know about anything.

 

Thank you.

 

mm, the actual materials for a posh one includes spruce and alder for the frame, and maple for the trimmings.

 

Pine isnt that hopeless to get to pop up, just needs some tinted clear to give some basic shade, or just leave it out in the sun for about three months, and have the grain darken naturally, but thats a bit tedious.

 

The plan if I continue to use pine as base material was to use two tones of clear, a darker one for the trimmings to bring out the hardware, as you suggested.

 

The pine glueboard is just readily available, cheap and cheerfull, and planed straight out of the wrapping which helps and speeds things up quite a lot.

 

The main problem I see with starting out with a "lump of wood" of any kind would be to get it thinned down to appropreate size.

 

Im trying to keep my toolkit as basic as possible, for instance im still lacking a plane of any kind, which would have been the first option for making the thinner pieces, but the router worked oddly well in this case where I already had a straight surface to start from, with another straight surface ready on the other side.

 

The clear rattle can laquer I have does work with wood in emergency, but currently with the outside climate (was a steady -20c up to yesterday) i'd rather not use spraycans in the house, considering all the sawdust in the air was irritating enough... heh.

 

Also do have a paintbrush airbrush as an option if I get some actual wood clear made up at the paintstore around the corner.

 

But all in all, I dont think they had spraypaint in 1900's, will have to see, and test options.

 

There are many possibilities for development atleast.

Edited January 4, 2013 by Guest

Nice! I love DD musical instruments.

 

I've not seen a kantele since my Kalevala class.

Nice! I love DD musical instruments.

 

I've not seen a kantele since my Kalevala class.

 

Thank you.

 

And, I suppose these things have evolved a bit since the old man Väinämöinen (pardon the umlauts) carved one from the jaw of a giant pike.

 

Always interesting to hear that old story being taught outside of the country.

Wow!

THAT LOOKS AMAZING! I am always jelly of people who can work with wood. I am too scared of all the power tools .

 

The end product came out beautifully. Maybe you can start taking commission for DD props in the future .

I am always jelly of people who can work with wood.

 

The end product came out beautifully. Maybe you can start taking commission for DD props in the future .

Thank you, And -- Well... you're rather good with the old paintbrush, which im not too skilled with, so that makes us sort of even... sort of.

 

the comission thing isnt impossible, depending on what can be comissioned, and for what price...

 

might have to return to that thaught in june when my weekly working hours go down to a normal level.

Based on this thread, I think a lot of people wouldn't mind having beds made! Along with some other items, especially specifically for DD!

 

http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=365

Based on this thread, I think a lot of people wouldn't mind having beds made! Along with some other items, especially specifically for DD!

 

http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=365

 

mmm, well... the trouble with beds is when you can pick a MDD sized one out of Ikea for 15 euros which actually looks rather nice, its a bit questionable to try and compete making one from scratch. (Damnit, where were these when I was last there...)

 

When I had huge dreams of "Atelier finnleo" (The Gust arland games, dont ask...) I thaught of some speciality items, like the japanese rack to display Kimono's, coffins (a bit macabre, but inspired by watching Another, go figure..), etc..

 

But lets not forget im not done with my morning job just yet, or that there might be other people much more able with the odd saw and chisel.

That's true, I haven't seen many beds that would a full size DD though. The specialty items sound like great ideas too. I'm still new to the hobby, so I don't how the market is for these kinds of things, but I guess you could always just go by a commission by commission basis, especially since you have your regular job as well.

Nice! I love DD musical instruments.

 

I've not seen a kantele since my Kalevala class.

 

Thank you.

 

And, I suppose these things have evolved a bit since the old man Väinämöinen (pardon the umlauts) carved one from the jaw of a giant pike.

 

Always interesting to hear that old story being taught outside of the country.

 

There was a Finnish/Estonian language program at my university which had a total of two faculty in the department. I took the Finnish film and the Kalevala classes for breadth requirements after hearing how great Prof. Vahamaki was. He did some recordings of some of the runos with him on the Kantele.

 

So he'd actually do some of the lessons with him singing. It was really interesting.

There was a Finnish/Estonian language program at my university which had a total of two faculty in the department. I took the Finnish film and the Kalevala classes for breadth requirements after hearing how great Prof. Vahamaki was. He did some recordings of some of the runos with him on the Kantele.

 

So he'd actually do some of the lessons with him singing. It was really interesting.

Seems oddly expressive for a finnish (or finnish decendant) teacher, heh..

 

 

But back to the project at hand, did some tests on a scrap piece of material after I got a deal on a pot of clearcoat from the paint store around the corner.

 

the advice was that staining would preferably be with a waterbased paint first, and then a oilbased clear ontop of that so that the two wont blend when applying the clear.

 

I had a small leftover pot of waterbased stain-laquer from a cabinet project earlier so decided to do a practical test using that:

 

With flash:

 

without flash:

 

ontop of everything there is three to four coats of clear with sanding done inbetween to get the surface as smooth as possible, especially since the stain-laquer has the property of enhancing the woods grain a bit.

 

beneath that I made a progressive layup test of how the staining would darken with each layer.

 

The clear makes the wood seem darker with the flash shot, but in normal light it seems to only add a metallic effect to the wood, rather than give it a tint.

 

Did this with a modeling paintbrush, and after sanding the middle coats of clear its not too bad, although quite a lot of dust winded up in the clear. Will have to see if I can manage an airbrush test at some point.

 

For an actual model will probably try to find a tint that is closer to violins and chellos.

A red wood finish would look good me thinks.

Hay boss I got something for you to think about. How are you planing to stain and clear coat the part under the strings. I know you can go between them but how are you going to sand. That is one of the drawbacks of using pine.

Hay boss I got something for you to think about. How are you planing to stain and clear coat the part under the strings. I know you can go between them but how are you going to sand. That is one of the drawbacks of using pine.

 

Since I wasnt going to do anything more to the proto, the plan is to do the laquer and color treatmets before the stringing phase with the next one with the revised body structure.

 

But will have to see about that some weekend, since Im now returning to fulltime work tomorrow, and not much free time left on weekdays as a result.

There was a Finnish/Estonian language program at my university which had a total of two faculty in the department. I took the Finnish film and the Kalevala classes for breadth requirements after hearing how great Prof. Vahamaki was. He did some recordings of some of the runos with him on the Kantele.

 

So he'd actually do some of the lessons with him singing. It was really interesting.

Seems oddly expressive for a finnish (or finnish decendant) teacher, heh..

 

 

http://www.finnala.com/Vahamaki_Borje.html

 

I think he just loves teaching.

aw man.... this is beautiful. Can't wait to see the final version

 

Makes me want to have a jigsaw and everything... Tsukihime really needs a Koto...

I think he just loves teaching.

Heh, I dont doubt that for a second, was just trying to be overly clever with finnish stereotypes. we're not exactly an outward type of people.

 

Makes me want to have a jigsaw and everything... Tsukihime really needs a Koto...

 

That is a funky looking instrument (though I initially thaught koto was the japanese version of a banjo, so much I know of japanese stuff it turns out).

 

Good news is you can find those ready made ... bad news is the one I saw for sale was 200+$ at crobidoll. Though I sort of start to understand those prices they ask after making my proto.