Happy St Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day. I celebrated this week by refurbishing a Bodhran, a traditional Celtic drum that I had originally purchased on a trip to Ireland. The heat and dry air of Las Vegas dried out the original goat skin drum head and so I removed it and replaced it with a skin I purchased from Wooden Voices in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a very rejuvenating task for the drum and me. There really is nothing quite like having hands on with wood and skin. The project took nearly a week due to the fact that I let patience and deliberation have major roles in this production.

I soaked the new skin in a large bucket and set about removing the torn skin from the drum. During the course of the project I realized that there were several parts and pieces of the original drum that I wanted to upgrade and replace. Brass tacks were replaced by screws on the tuning ring. Old paint was sanded away and the bearing edges sealed with polyurethane wood sealant. It took three tries before I was confident that the skin would stretch and dry correctly. The first time I set the skin on the frame and simply observed as it dried for 10 hours. It dried unevenly and ended up with waves and wrinkles. For the second try I added another coat of sealant to the bearing edge and re soaked the skin. I stretched the skin again, this time I placed an 18" bass drum hoop over the edge of the drum to help give some continuity to the stretch, but by doing this I learned that the drum frame itself was a bit out of round and the gaps needed attention special attention. I kept tension, stretching it by hand continually for about 2 hours until it had formed closely to the frame and began drying. About 8 hours into the second dry, waves again formed on the head at the points where the bass drum hoop wasn't tight against the skin and frame. I removed the skin and soaked it one more time for a final stretch.

For my final try I took the skin from the tub of water I squeezed excess water with my hands and then set it flat on a beach towel. I rolled the skin into the towel in layers to further remove excess water. This time I stretched the skin entirely by hand and continually for about an hour until it was uniformly formed across the frame and down the sides. No waves and no lumps on the skin. After a period of drying and a bit more stretching that lasted another hour, I stapled the head to the frame in a double row about 3/4 " from the top edge and cut away the skin below the staples. Watching the skin dry the first two times I saw that it dried unevenly because it may have been thicker in some areas, thereby holding moisture longer than other, thinner parts of the skin. I solved this by letting it dry in a dark place and checking every 20 or 30 minutes to see if any waves or "baggy" areas formed. When they did, I took the drum and put it in front of a fan with the air concentrated on the moist areas. I felt the head to determine if it was drying evenly and the tension was uniform. This took another hour or so to make sure that the thicker, wetter parts of the skin dried out at the same rate as the rest of the skin. Finally, I reattached the decorative ribbon over the staples to give it a bit of a regal "finished" look.

Now get me a Guiness, a beautiful lass and a pub session and I will be set.

bjk.