Also, for those of you that didn't see this in the for sale section of the site, the first painted drum head is done.

I am currently taking orders on these for anyone interested.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img833/2595/luzernclosecrop.jpg[/IMG]

I think I may have neglected to post a picture of this drum when I put up pictures of the last batch of restoration projects. This is an 1870's era 16" x 10" snare that included the shell and nothing else when I got. While there is not date on it, the design and construction do indicate that this would be the time period of this drum. There is a nice star inlay on the front of the drum which was popular at that time.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img15/6610/dscn3610qy.jpg[/IMG]

The drum has some conditional issues with some slight buckling in the outer ply of the shell due to some cracks on the inner ply of the shell from age and there was a lot of scarring in the outer shell and around the star inlay. Note that the air grommet is missing here, this is being made for me by a friend and the replacement will be made out of ivory which would be period correct for this drum although it could have also been a dark wood. I have had both on star drums passing through my hands. (Please note that the ivory used is pre-banned ivory and the the part is being made by a craftsman licensed to purchase, sell and manufacture with this material while there is still a surplus.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img705/6017/img20130305192005019.jpg[/IMG]

This particular drum is actually going to be re-purposed as a 16" child bass drum that will be going to the 4 year old son of one of my clients. I started prepping the drum by filling in some of the cracks on the inner ply the help strengthen the shell and also pushing some of the buckles in the shell out to smooth it out.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img706/5710/dscn3765u.jpg[/IMG]

Here are the clamps holding the braces into place to push the buckles out.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img7/8081/img20130306025506891.jpg[/IMG]

I then removed both reinforcement rings and re-glued them since they were both very loose. (The drum needs some love but you would too if you were 135 years old.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img69/9177/dscn3763l.jpg[/IMG]

Now, to prep this drum and get it ready to withstand a 4 year old, in addition to filling in the cracks on the inner ply I also decided that it would be a good idea to add another reinforcement ring in the center of the shell to help with stability. If the child trips and falls forward I don't want the drum collapsing underneath him.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img825/9633/dscn3770gd.jpg[/IMG]

The addition of the inner ring definitely increased the strength of the shell by a very noticeable amount and even helped to solidify the resonance of the drum a little as well by helping to push the buckles in the shell out even more.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img811/9794/dscn3767ef.jpg[/IMG]

Once that was done I carefully started sanding the outer shell by hand and then also sanding each individual piece of inlay (No, there is no easy way or trick) with small pieces of very fine grit sand paper to get it as smooth as possible. Both the star and the shell were finished with an 800 grit paper and will get a clear urethane coat some time next week. The shell looks a little shiny here because i used a little bit of furniture polish on the wood to clean it and get the saw dust from the sand paper off of it. This should give you an idea of what the shell will look like when it is done.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img826/4644/dscn3771p.jpg[/IMG]

Matt beautiful work you do!! That's one lucky 4 year old too!! Whats the plan for the rest of the kit? Wow a real ivory grommet has got to cost a pretty penny and then some. Interesting project you have going on here.

Not going to be kit, this is going to be a rope tension kids bass drum. The other snare shell from this time period is also going to be a kids rope drum and then the 20th century snares are going to become kids sized rope snare drums.

Oh that's cool. I wasn't thinking rope drum but it's great starting the little guy off early. These shells with the star inlays on them are pretty cool. Fun to follow along too.

I can't get over this...outstanding work!!!

Once again, thank you to everyone who watches this thread and for the compliments, it means a lot.

I started work on the drum that had what was left of a painted eagle on it yesterday and ended up re-gluing the bearing edges back into place.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img823/1818/dscn3777d.jpg[/IMG]

The eagle looks as if it were pretty grand at one point and it truly pained me to know that there just wasn't enough left of it to save. The first couple of passes with the sand paper really hurt. :(

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img14/5964/dscn3781fo.jpg[/IMG]

Even though it was painful to do, I was greeted with a pleasant surprise once I got the old paint and crackling finish off of the drum. The picture below shows the absolutely gorgeous wood grain that was waiting below and what you see is the shell cleaned up to remove all of the sawdust. All that I have used on this shell was just a tiny bit of furniture polish, no urethane has been applied to the drum yet.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img171/3681/dscn3800m.jpg[/IMG]

Okay, the St. Patrick's month celebration is over and I am finally able to buckle down and get back to some of these projects that I have been working on.

First, lets throw one more drum into the mix. This is a war era WFL 26" x 14" maple / mahogany shell that is being converted to a a rope tension bass drum that is being done for one of the board members here. It started off like this:

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img593/2375/dscn3492i.jpg[/IMG]

And I started by plugging all of the holes. The holes were to small for most of my dowels and too large for others so I had to drill each of the holes to 3/16" so that I could plug them and fill them properly.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img854/3092/dscn3823j.jpg[/IMG]

Then I sanded the shell down to the bare wood and next I will be regluing a couple of spots in the reinforcement hoops and sanding the bearing edges until they are as smooth as a baby's bottom

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img841/5264/dscn3837p.jpg[/IMG]

Next up is the drum that had the eagle on it that I sanded down. Yes it was painful to do but there wasn't another option on this one. If you look closely you can still see the outline of one of the flags in the wood grain. This shot is after 3 coats of urethane.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img813/7042/dscn3826s.jpg[/IMG]

Slightly out of order here but this was a mock up with the bare wood hoop on it to get a sense of size. The hoops were had drilled with 10 holes each and the shell had not yet been urethaned in this photo. This drum will also end up as a child sized bass drum and these hoops will be painted red.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img94/3497/dscn3819z.jpg[/IMG]

Now for the third drum I am actively working on. This is the star inlay drum that is also being converted to a kid sized bass drum.

I made 10 smaller sized ears because the drum itself isn't that big at only 10" tall. The ears are dyed a dark brown and stamped with the initials of the recipient and finished off with copper rivets because they add a nice contrast to the brown leather.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img802/4864/dscn3821v.jpg[/IMG]

The hoops were drilled out for 10 holes then sanded and stained and they currently have their first two coats of urethane on them. I went with an ebony stain on the hoops to add a nice contrast to the mahogany and the star inlay.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img819/3646/dscn3831e.jpg[/IMG]

Now the shell with several layers of a satin finish on it. Not completely dull but not overly shiny either so it's perfect for a child and should take a bit of abuse. Personally, I love the way the shells with the star inlays on them look.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img205/9581/dscn3830m.jpg[/IMG]

And a mock up again that I did to get a sense of size when done. The hoops hadn't been stained yet in this picture.

[IMG]http://imageshack.us/a/img820/8982/dscn3816g.jpg[/IMG]

Much more coming soon. Thanks for looking again, I am still humbled every time I look and see how many times this thread has been viewed.