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Showing posts from March, 2012

Christopher Parkening Master Class, August 1980, Part 3

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There are days I'd rather be flyfishing. Christopher Parkening, Bozeman, Montana, 1980 While looking for something else, I found this program from August 1980. There were many talented people in that master class, I still feel fortunate that Parkening and the other class members chose me to be in the final recital with the others. Below are some close ups of the program. I don't remember Ed Weir or Michael Brenton, but I remember Klaus, Jeff and Leslie quite clearly, they were wonderful players and great people. Chris Parkening loved how Klaus (who was from Germany) would pronounce "Bach", he would imitate Klaus by saying "Baah-aachh" in a very aspirated German way. Jeff was 35 at the time and when he found out that I was only 17 years old then he said, "Well, I'd better hurry up, I have a long ways to go to catch up to you and I don't have much time." Leslie was a very good player, very full of himself and did I say he was

Cloth for French Polishing

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I have advised all makers of my guitars to construct the fingerboard a little wider than usual because this allows the fingers to stretch and they articulate better. This facilitates the clarity of phrases, the entire technique . Andres Segovia, 1977 You are looking at $45 worth of fabric. The fabric to the left is Irish handkerchief linen, the material on the right is Nelona Swedish cotton made from 100 percent Pima cotton. I purchased this from Elfriede's Fine Fabrics in Boulder, Colorado, I couldn't find any decent linen or cotton at super fabric stores, my wife told me the best place to go was to Elfriede's, and of course she was right. I'm starting to run a little short on T-shirt material which is what I've been using to apply shellac with. It works but it tends to leave swirl marks, I haven't decided if that is from using a 2 pound cut of shellac or if it is the material. I decided I need to try other fabric to french polish with and I can't

Historic Window Restoration and Salamanders at Harney/Lastoka Barn

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...other materials to supersede the old ones were now arriving from multitudinous wage earners in touch with no neighbourhood at all, but in the pay of capitalists. Seen in detail the changes seemed so trumpery and, in most cases, such real improvements. That they were upsetting old forms of skill-producing a population of wages-slaves in place of a nation of self-supporting workmen-occured to nobody. George Sturt, The Wheelwright's Shop , 1923 Harney/Lastoka Mule Barn, Louisville, Colorado Week 3 of working for Boulder County Parks and Open Space, I'm helping out with the stabilization of this barn and milk shed. The milking shed which attaches to the barn has 10 windows and seven sashes which originally were salvaged from some house in Louisville, they are all double hung sashes with an upper and lower sash. I had to make 3 new windows and do restoration work on the others, adding dutchmen as needed-replacing broken tenons, rebuilding some glazing rabbets and added

The Lutherie Vacation is Over, Back to Work

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There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." Issac Asimov, Newsweek , January 1980 With 2 mortgages I need to go back to work. I took a seasonal job doing historic preservation work with Boulder County. Tabor House, Leadville, Colorado I started this week with Boulder County working on restoring a mule barn that was turned into a milk shed just north of Louisville. Right now, I have 7 windows to restore and I built 3 brand new windows that are copies of originals. Several windows are single light and the others are 2 to 4 light. Since there isn't a shaper with a window sash router bit set in the carpenter shop, I've been cutting the tenons and copes by hand. I impressed the hell out of one of the carpente