Deserted Ouds

A customer recently made a visit to Las Vegas, Nevada with his oud. He was concerned with humidity levels adversely affecting his oud. Typical levels during the summer months range in the 10%-30-% level. That's a potentially dangerous environment for any instrument, but especially so for ouds constructed around the 50% humidity level. So with some advise I received from oudist Mavrothis Kontanis (see link at right), I fit one of my Khalaf Oud soft cases with the Planet Waves Small Instrument Humidifier for this customer.

The small unit fits perfectly in the area of the case where the neck joins the pegbox, and attaches via a curved pin through the case lining. There are also a couple self-adhesive velcro tabs to hold the humidifier in place, although the pin works best in the soft case. I also recommend that a soft cloth be wrapped around the neck-pegbox area and held in place with a loose strap (I used a velcro tie-wrap designed for bundling wires) to protect the back of the neck and pegbox from scratches, although the humidifier is quite smooth and low-profile. The absorbent material in the humidifier is excellent. I filled it with two complete syringes (the humidifier comes with one to fill it) of water and it completely absorbed the water. There was no trace of water on the outside of the device, and even after shaking the device vigorously I could not detect and trace of leakage. In fact, I shook the humidifier while wrapped in a paper towel, and the towel remained bone dry. I'm really impressed with the product, and may eventually offer it for sale. In the meantime, you can probably pick one of these up at your local guitar shop.

A very special oud for a friend

In a few weeks, this instrument will be delivered to it's owner, Mike Malek.
Over the course of the last year, Mike and I have been designing every aspect of this instrument, from the bowl woods, all the way to the little inlays on the upper bout of the face. Over a year and dozens of Photoshopped jpeg-laden emails later, the oud is finally finished. This instrument was based largely on an oud made by Abdo Nahat & Sons in the early 1930's, with some elements borrowed from other Nahat ouds. Look for some more details about this particular instrument in some upcoming entries.

Brese plane kit complete

I finished up the Ron Brese small smoother kit over the weekend. I'm really impressed with this plane, and for the price of the kit (less than $300), it's the most pain-free way to get into a brand-new high-performance infill smoother. I made a few changes that added to the time necessary to complete the kit. But the basic, unmodified kit would be easily a weekend project for the this plane's target audience, I would think. Funny thing about kits. It's my first one, but I almost feel like I made the whole thing. It's pretty satisfying work, and a fantastically functioning tool to boot. Special thanks to Dumont Digital for the excellent photography.





















Here's a pic of the plane's first test drive...



...and the actual test drive... :-)

Brese plane---shaping, peening, lapping, tuning

For those more interested in oud construction, I promise some interesting posts in the coming weeks. For the time being though, it's infill plane construction. There is a certain similarity between plane making and luthiery, I've always thought.

Here I've sanded the ends of the infill flush with the body.



Getting started on shaping the infills. I used a Nicholson #49 rasp, followed by my little Grobet detail rasp. Great tools.

Here's a little video.






After rasping and filing.



Ready to file and peen the screw heads.



The screw heads after some filing, then peening.



After peening, and filing almost flush. The scratches on the side are from the masking-tape covered tip of the file.



After lapping the sides and further refining the shape.



The sides lapped and infills taken through 0000 Liberon Steel Wool.






To tune the lever cap to the face of the iron, it must sit perfectly flat to the iron, otherwise the plane will not perform correctly. When I do critical fitting of oud ribs, I often use an LED pen light to check the fit. I aim for a light-tight fit. So I figured this would be a good application for this technique. You can see the tip of the LED at the upper left.



I'm shining the light as far as it will go into the escapement, butting it tight to the end of the lever cap at the left end. See the sliver of light tapering to almost nothing as it moves to the right?



And at the right end it's light-tight. The little spot of light is from the gap between the right edge of the lever cap and the inside of the right side wall but there is none showing between the lever cap and the iron. I need to remove more material from the right side of the cap.

Here is a video to illustrate the technique.



Next pics will be of the finished plane!

Brese plane--more infill fitting

Good fit



Marking the ramps





Here I'm shooting the bed of the rear infill...



...with a miter jack on the 90 degree side.



Here I'm checking the relationship between the infill bed and the sole bed using a flat stick I lapped dead flat just before this operation. I'm not sure how this is usually done, maybe with a steel gauge of some sort, or maybe just a finger. This seems to work about right for me.



I also checked diagonally in both directions. I'm told its better for the infill to be slightly rearward of the sole's bed rather than proud of it, so the iron beds on the brass. Of course the best is that they are both dead in the same plane. That's what I'm shooting for.



This is the bed after lapping (little out of sequence here)



The bottom left corner has a little blow out at edge and a little void that appeared when I cut the ramp. Brese tells me it's small enough not to matter. It doesn't bother me. Well, not entirely. :-)



Escapement ramp at 15 degrees, then curved.



Sawing the curved ends.



I sanded the curved ends on an edge sander with 150 grit.

Brese plane--fitting the ebony infill

I milled the ebony last week to rough size. It didnt move at all over the weekend, so I though I'd go ahead and do some fitting.



I used a freshly honed #4 smoothing plane set for a very light cut. The ebony planed beautifully.



Then I marked for the rabbet. I set my marking gauge by setting the fence on the top of the side wall, then sliding the beam down to the sole.



Marked and ready for cutting.



A couple passes on the table saw and the rabbet was almost there.



Using a shoulder plane I refined the cheeks of the rabbet. The inside of the plane body was slightly wider at the sole, so I had to remove about .01" from the top of the rabbet, and the taper this towards the bottom.



I used a block plane to taper the cheek along with the shoulder plane. Then I used a rather unique scraper to make it dead flat and really tweak the fit very gradually. This is a great tool made by a local shop. It's not really a woodworking tool per se, but I use for it all sorts of work, from fitting operations to rough scraping. Look for a more detailed blog post about this tool soon.




Planing the tapered cheeks



Planing the shoulder

Brese plane-wood for the infill

I wanted a hard and heavy wood for the infill on this plane. Rosewood of some sort, ebony, boxwood, etc. My supplier didn't have much in terms of rosewood at the required thickness, but he did have some really nice ebony that's been in this warehouse for 3 or more years, so dryness should not be an issue. After milling it, it seems quite dry. I don't have a moisture meter, so I'm going by feel here mostly. I milled the blank to rough size, and I'm letting sit over the weekend to see if it moves. Hopefully next week I'll make some real progress on getting this plane finished. I would have preferred a beautiful piece of cocobolo for this plane, but I just couldnt get my hands on any, and the last batch of nice wood I had to use for Mag-bloks.







These would have made nice infills...