The gourd came from a neighbor of my brothers, he was a 98 year old man who enjoyed woodworking for many many years. I'm not 100% sure what his real name was but everyone called him "Snooks" including his daughter who lives next door. While at his shop one day chatting about a chair he was building I noticed all these gourds up in the rafters. I asked him about them and he said that they had been up there for at least 30 years, I ask if I could have one to make a banjo out of and he said take as many as you want. So I now have a small supply for projects like this.
Unfortunately, Snooks passed away a few weeks ago, before I could finish the banjo to show him. So I take on this project in his memory and hope that he would have been happy with the outcome.
Pics: "Psst, you can click on the thumbs for a larger view"
Gourd with rough neck blank:
Gourd with nearly finished neck:
My brother runs a small greenhouse operation and has quite the green thumb, so this next year we are saving seeds from these heirloom gourds and are going to grow some more. Hopefully after 30 years or so the seeds are still viable, my brother seems to think they will be as he mutters something about archeology and finding gourd seeds in Egyptian tombs that sprouted after thousands of years. I have my fingers crossed!
I've gotten quite a bit of interest in my gourd banjo project so I thought I would update everyone on my progress. Since my last post I have shaped the heel of the neck and added the dowel stick. With the dowel in place I was able to attach the neck to th
Tracked: Jan 30, 17:36