Basic specs:

• Claro Walnut block rim 11" x 2-3/4" x 5/8" thick
• Black walnut neck with 5/16" center stripe of birdseye maple and curly claro walnut headstock overlay
• Open-back design with Purpleheart tone ring

Click here for pictures of the completed prototype banjo

Carving The Neck:

October 21, 2009: These pictures show both necks after rough carving and some sanding:

October 25, 2009: Assembled both banjos today to check out the neck fit and alignment:

Here are some pictures of the neck - the overlay has already been glued on:

Building the Rim

The next series of pictures shows the construction of the rim for my banjo. The rim will be blocked construction, made from a single piece of claro walnut obtained from an Ebay seller known as AntlersExpress. First, the layout for the pieces of the rim:

Next, the template for each individual block of the rim:

I made up four strips of Claro Walnut approximately 2" wide by 1-1/4" thick, then cut a set of 12 blocks 6-11/16" long with the ends cut at a 30-degree angle. Six of these blocks will make up each layer of the rim. This picture shows the shape of the rim block template transferred to one of the pieces I cut:

Next I cut all 12 pieces to the shape of the rim block template:

The next two pictures show the rim blocks stacked as they will be glued to make up the two layers of the rim:

Once these are glued together, I will make up a third layer from Purpleheart, and this layer will become the integral tone ring. And here it is:

I thought this was purpleheart, but now I'm thinking it's bloodwood - it seems too red and not enough purple to be purpleheart. This is the problem you have when you have a lot of different kinds of wood in your stash - remembering what each piece is!

Gluing the two layers of walnut together:

Next step: gluing the tone ring to the walnut assembly:

Here's the rim out of the clamps:

10/01/2009: I just got finished shaping the rim this afternoon. I don't have a lathe, so I made a simple jig that allowed me to rotate the rim assembly against the business end of my Ryobi oscillating spindle sander to "turn" the outside down to 11 inches on the nose. Then I drew a line 9/16" in from the outside diameter on the top edge, then used the spindle sander to sand the inside of the rim to that line. When that was done, I used the spindle sander again to make a bevel into the tone ring, and finally rounded the outside edge of the tone ring by hand with sandpaper. I'll post pictures of the result as soon as I take them.

10/02/09: And here are the pictures:

October 8, 2009: Today I glued the fingerboard onto the neck, and it's ready to do the inlay:

Here's what I'm planning to use for the neck inlays:

October 11: The walnut neck in the neck-fitting jig:

October 14, 2009: The head I ordered from Mark Hickler arrived today. Here's what the rim looks like with the head and tension hoop in place:

Looking good, yes? The hardware for the banjo pot assembly also showed up today:

October 16, 2009: Unfortunately I forgot to take some pictures while I was drilling all of the holes in the rim for the brackets and coordinator rods, so I'll jump right to the assembled pot (the wood is still unfinished, however):

Later the same day: I dismantled the pot assembly, sanded it with 150, 220, and 320 grit sandpaper, then applied one coat of General Finishes Seal-A-Cell:

This is after two more coats (doesn't look a whole lot different, does it?):

October 18, 2009: I reassembled the hardware to the rim, routed a "step" into the neck heel to fit the head and tension hoop, then mounted the neck to the pot assembly to see about fit and alignment:

Obviously the neck still needs to be carved, and the second thing I discovered is that the neck alignment is a little off - it tilts a little (maybe 1/8") to the right, and it doesn't tilt back far enough. So the neck will go back into the heel-trimming jig for some adjustment of the neck heel.

October 20, 2009: Gluing the heel cap onto the neck:

October 25, 2009: More pictures showing the carved neck attached to the pot assembly:

November 8, 2009: Mark Hickler contacted me last week with an offer to trade work for work: If I would shape and rout an electric guitar body for him, he would do some work for me in exchange. I suggested that he turn a resonator for me. We came to an agreement, and I started work on making up the blank to be turned. It's made up from two pieces of walnut. One is figured black walnut and the other is marbled and slightly figured claro walnut.

I started by making a 14" diameter disk from eight 45-degree wedges from the piece of curly black walnut, then making a rim for the resonator from the piece of claro walnut.

Here's the resulting resonator blank being glued up:

This picture shows the center of the disk where the eight pieces of black walnut come together:

As you can see, seven of the wedges are actually a little less than 45-degrees, and I cut the eighth one to fill the remaining space - more like 50-degrees. I guess my miter gauge is a little off. :-( I was thinking I would have to inlay something in the center to hide the spot where the pieces come together, but the joint came out better than I had hoped.

November 14, 2009: More progress on the prototype banjo. First, I got the fingerboard inlays done. Rather than use the inlays I got from Bruce Wei Arts, I designed my own, using various dots, diamonds, and a few shapes from the Bruce Wei inlays:

Next, I got the resonator flange yesterday, and got it installed on the banjo pot today. I was fortunate that all of the holes on the flange lined up with the bracket shoes and hooks and no drilling out of flange holes was necessary. However, in order to get everything to fit together I had to do some additional carving on the neck heel - it was about 1/4" too wide to fit in the existing gap in the flange.

Here's a shot from the back, showing the narrower neck heel:

Detail of the narrower neck heel:

January 17, 2010: Mark Hickler sent me some pictures of the progress he's made on the resonator:

January 21, 2010: Mark sent two more pictures of the work on the resonator. The first is the completed collet, and the second is the resonator blank in the collet:

January 24, 2010: More in-progress pictures from Mark of the resonator:

January 25, 2010: Two more pictures from Mark Hickler of the herringbone purfling being installed:

January 30, 2010: My logo inlays finally arrived. I get them from Andy DePaule (www.luthiersupply.com),, who alway does beautiful work. He had some difficulties with an overzealous customs inspector last month, so the stuff I ordered in early December was held up over a month.

So I wasted no time getting them inlaid into the headstocks of this banjo, as well as Cole's. They don't look like much yet, but it's a two-step process: 1) get them inlaid, then 2) fill in with black epoxy. The first step is done, and now I have to wait for the epoxy to cure so I can sand them smooth, then complete the epoxy-filling process.

The prototype headstock with the first step completed, waiting for the epoxy to cure:

January 31. 2010:

The prototype is almost finished! Last night I completed the inlays on the headstock, then put put several coats of oil/poly finish on over the inlays and the top surface of the headstock after sanding to 320-grit. Today I did the assembly of the banjo - as shown here. It actually sounds like a banjo! Big surprise, right? :-) Here are some pictures of the result:

Now I have to wait for Mark Hickler to finish the work on the resonator! And I have to make a truss rod cover too. I've played the intro to Duleing Banjos on it, and to my untrained ear it sounds great!

February 4, 2010: Mark sent more pictures of the resonator - these show the installation of the top-edge binding:

February 5, 2010: Mark sent me an email saying the resonator had been shipped today. Yay! Here are the pictures he included. First, the ledge or shelf for the outside edge of the flange:

Next, the stair-steps he carved for the inside radius of the resonator dish:

The inside cleaned up some, but he says I'll have to finish cleaning up the inside, since the lathe couldn't hold the resonator firmly enough to avoid chatter at this point:

February 9, 2010: The resonator arrived today. Mark Hickler did a magnificent job turning it for me. I highly recommend his work!

I cut the notch in the edge for the neck heel, and here are four pictures of the resonator - the last two showing how it fits to the banjo:

February 10, 2010: The completed prototype banjo. After applying several coats of oil/poly finish to the resonator, I did the final assembly, and here it is:

Some more pictures of the resonator, just because the figured walnut is so pretty: