Capital City Carvers

Tips and Techniques
by Barbara Mann

Something always happens that gives me a topic for this column. This time finding my bottle of glue glued shut has set me off on glue. I know better than to grab a pair of pliers and try to pull the top off. If I were successful in getting the top off, the pressure of holding the bottle would send a stream of glue flying all over the place. So I made the safe choice—I threw the bottle out and got a new one. And started doing some reading about glue.

Carvings sometimes break while we are working on them. Stop, chose your glue, and set the piece back in right away without doing any carving on that area. Give the glue time to set. But what kind of glue do you use? Each has strong points and problems.

Before the CA glues came along we used Elmer's Glue-All. It's safe, non-toxic, and cleans up with with soap and water. However, it leaves a visible line if you are finishing with a lacquer. The line usually doesn't show up under paint. So it could work. Super glue works, but it will glue your fingers together quickly and will dry up fast if not kept in the refrigerator. Then you have to let it warm up a bit before trying to use it. Wood glues (carpenter's glue) work, but the bottle openings are usually so large that it hard to control the amount coming out of the bottle. Some glues like epoxy require activators which usually means some kind of a mixing process. That's messy, the glue sets up fast, it's hard to control amounts, and don't breathe the fumes.

So I have settled on a cyanoacrylate adhesive (CA) for a great bond and good control of the amount of glue. Loctite Super Glue comes in different thicknesses and I use the one labeled "gel control". It's a little thicker, the bottle has a cap that pierces the tip just right, you control the amount of gel by squeezing the moveable sides of the bottle, and the bottle's whole design allows me to put the glue just where I want it. I have several seconds to position the piece before the glue sets. But I have also been known to glue my fingers together and keep some acetone (nail polish remover) around to correct that. Keep your fingers away from your face and especially your eyes when working with CAs.

If this glue is so great how did my bottle get glued shut? Easy—I didn't wipe a small glob off the tip before I put the cap back on. Use an old cloth or a piece of enamel (slick) paper to wipe the tip. Happy gluing!

Wood Is Musical

Wood is everywhere in musical instruments. Three elements determine an instrument's sound quality: the woods, the craftsmanship, and the design. Which element is most essential is a matter of debate, but notice which is listed first. Let's look at what woods are used in musical instruments.

Violins: The species of woods used are carefully chosen for the jobs they have to perform, and within those confines, the exact pieces are selected for their beauty. Stradivari used red spruce for the soundboard (face), and traditionally the neck and sides are flame maple, the back is tiger stripe or fiddleback maple, and the fretboard is ebony. The bow is made from pernambuco (pau brasil) or snakewood, and the frog is ebony.

Guitars: Acoustic guitars can be as well made as violins. German spruce is used for the top; rosewood, ziricote, African mahogany, or koa for the sides and backs; and ebony for the fretboards.

Drums: Sticks, bones, or dried fruit with seeds that rattle were probably the first musical instruments. The first "made" musical instruments were drums because all that was needed was a hollowed out log. Dating back to 6000 BC, drums were handy for keeping rhythm, for communicating, and keeping evil spirits away. Various veneers are now used to make the drum sides.

Pianos: Five basic woods are used in every piano: maple, yellow birch, sugar pine, poplar, and Sitka spruce. The soundboard that creates the piano's voice is Sitka spruce; the rim is hard (sugar) maple; yellow birch make the inner cores of the piano hammers, legs and pedal lyres; poplar is the core for the veneered components—tops, keylids. and other flat surfaces; sugar pine makes the soundboard braces; birch is used for legs on pianos that are to be ebonized; walnut is used for legs in natural wood pianos; and the veneers are made from the most beautiful hardwoods from all over the world.

Others: Other stringed instruments including harpsichords, zithers, dulcimers, banjos, harps, viola, etc. are make of woods. Flutes can be made of solid ebony. Clarinets can be make of boxwood or African blackwood. Xylophones are wood. This is just a start on how wood is used in making music.

Adapted From: A Splintered History of Wood by Spike Carlsen.

DUES ARE DUE!!!