Markku Nyytäjä's 5B maple drumsticks (Pictures)

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Last summer I purchased a wood lathe, but the tool stood in its box by my workshop door until last week. I had so many guitar projects to finish that I was afraid if I set the lathe up, I would start toying around with it instead of finishing my projects. With two basses finished within two weeks I finally allowed myself to set the lathe up and started toying around with it.

The first thing I turned was a set of traction wheels for a pickup winder project, using a suitable scrap piece of 50-year-old birch. Then I turned a pair of 5B drumsticks out of maple.
Every time I make a maple guitar neck I get two scrap pieces just long and thick enough to make drumsticks. I have quite a few of these pieces, and sometimes the wood intended for a neck has a knot in a bad place and I have to make something else of the blank. I have previously made some toast pliers out of scrap maple. Now that I have a lathe I can turn drumsticks.

You can buy a pair of drumsticks for 10 bucks and it takes a while to turn them on a manual lathe, so this is no good business idea- but that's not the point. The point is using every piece of scrap wood I have for musical instruments or accessories. Here come my first sticks:

First I have to make a square stick round.

I use 120 grit sanding paper to smooth out the rough surface. It goes actually quite fast.

I use 120 grit sanding paper to smooth out the rough surface. It goes actually quite fast.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

I give the sticks a final sanding with 400 & 600 grit papers, punch a type mark at the ends of the sticks and treat them with a coat of Danish oil. I have thought of applying logo decals too, but then I'll have to fix the decals either with Danish oil or lacquer.

I'm giving the first pair of NYDE Drumsticks to a drummer friend. He'll try them out for me and give me feedback of them. Here's the lucky couple!

Behold my very first pair of hand-turned drumsticks!

[Jim McConkey]

Nice use of scrap! Be sure to let us know how your drummer friend thinks they worked out.

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Thanks, Jim. My drummer friend should come by and pick the sticks up tomorrow. Yesterday I purchased a mini studio and took a few shots on my living room table an hour ago. I'm posting them now.
They're coming at you!

[Steve Senseney]

Nice sticks!

What is a "mini studio"?

[Markku Nyytäjä]

Thanks Steve. My mini studio is a small (50 x 50 x 50 cm) simple portable fabric cube, with a metal or plastic frame. This one has transparent white side walls, one open wall, black ceiling, a set of backdrops in 4 different colours, a camera stand and two daylight halogen lamps that can be diffused through the white walls. For these pics I used the halogen lamps with a matte black backdrop, but I also have a set of 3 portable studio strobes with infrared trigger & receiver, 300Ws power per head and a ton of accessories. They're so much better than the halogens that I'll be using them with an umbrella diffuser or a softbox in the future. I also prefer using a decent camera tripod instead of the one that came with the package. The whole package cost only 39€ and it's great for photographing pickups, hardware and other small subjects, but just barely big enough for drumsticks. I can set it up in a minute and fold it back in two. I must just let the lamps cool off before packing them back in the bag. The case doubles as the cube ceiling and looks like a large laptop computer case when everything is tucked in. I was hesitant to buy it at first, but I've already found it quite practical. Now I can shoot pro level product pics at home and don't have to schlep everything to work every time I take studio photos of something I've made. Mini studios are used even in big commercial photo studios for shooting jewelry, cosmetics, consumer electronics and anything where the subject is small and has to be lighted evenly.