Eye of Nu ? P2

I finally got some other small stuff out of the way so I can start focusing on the projects I’ve got right now. This custom maple djembe is one of them.? I’m having some trouble tracking down bloodwood which was going to be my accent wood on the base of this djembe drum.? The local WoodCraft, though expensive usually stocks it, but I was told they only carry it on special order now, and that they just placed an order of wood so it could be a few weeks before they order again.? No Thanks!? I gotta get this guy moving!? I have my fingers crossed that another source will work out for me, and if not, there are 2 other places I can try before I have to resort to ordering online.

Over the past few days I have been slowly chewing away at this djembe.? Selecting out the wood, cutting it to size, jointing it up and planing it down so it’s smooth and square… all the good stuff that’s required when working with rough cut lumber.? I had it in mind today (fathers day none the less..of which my wife has been absolutely wonderful in making my first fathers day memorable… making breakfast, being extra sweet, giving me time to play in the workshop.. yeah, I got it good…) to take the maple I had set aside for this project and get to a point that I can bring it to the laser engraver on Monday to burn out the logo which will later be filled with the inlace inlay system to match the accents of bloodwood.? I had already got the maple cut to length and width for cutting the staves, but I went ahead and plane down to thickness and cut the angle for the staves.? Doesn’t sound like much in a day, but I was working on a similar djembe that I’m building out of black walnut that will be headed with a vegan skin… I had the two drums at the same stage, so it makes it easier to just pass them all through the planer/jointer and move ’em all to the table saw for the next step.? What you see is my dust collector bag with stripes of walnut dust and maple dust.? Reminds me of those sand art candles that I made as a kid…? I should experiment with this some day when I have lots of woods that are different colors.

ok, ok… So I got the staves cut for the bottom half of this djembe and got the bevel put on. (sorry again for the camera phone photo)? The loose staves in the photo are going to be the main section of the bottom half of the djembe drum.? The grouped section will be the top half of the djembe.? I haven’t cut them into staves yet, I just wanted to make sure that I got that bottom section done so I could engrave it Monday.

After I got the bottom section all cut up, I visually matched up the grain and numbered them so I’d remember how they went.? I’ll take maybe 5 or so from the middle to be engraved with the Eye of Nu logo.? I’ll try and get some photos of the laser engraving process as well.