Bowed Psaltery Kit

[Teresa Wiggins]

My kit finally arrived!

[Teresa Wiggins]

Bows are finished except to seal the wood, which I now realize I should have done first.

[Teresa Wiggins]

Why do all my pics come out sideways? They were upright to begin with, never edited.

[Teresa Wiggins]

I have the back glued on and sanded smooth. I have the mounting pad installed (for attaching to a tripod). Next step is to install the internal pick up.

I ordered some Celtic border pattern stencils to wood burn a design along the sides. Can't wait to do that.

[Teresa Wiggins]

I picked the middle one.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Those stencils are pretty cool, where did you get them from? And, how does that work, do you use them to mark out areas only, or leave them on (if they have an adhesive backing)?

[Teresa Wiggins]

Got them from Amazon. You tape the stencil on, pencil it in, remove the stencil, then do the wood burning. No adhesive backing.

I've installed the internal pick up and glued on the top. Waiting for glue to dry is so much fun.

[Teresa Wiggins]

Way more intricate work than I thought it would be, but it's going well.

[Teresa Wiggins]

Finished the pyrography. It's the same on both sides.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Looks great, really dresses it up.

[Teresa Wiggins]

Thanks! The next step is the scary part, drilling 64 holes, half of which are slanted at a 15 degree angle (the ones on the pink block below the bridge, the ones that you use to tune, not the upper ones). I'm using a drill press as the instructions state. But hubby's going to have to help me hold it.

[Jim McConkey]

Looks great! If you do any more pyrography, please take a photo of the tools you use, possibly in-use. This isn't common on guitars, so many here have never seen it before.

[Teresa Wiggins]

[Teresa Wiggins]

This Colwood model comes with about 8 different tips. The dial adjust how much heat you use.

[Teresa Wiggins]

My process was to tape the stencil down, pencil in the design, move the stencil and repeat until it was all penciled in. Then I used to tool with the small ball tip to burn in the pencil marks, in back and forth lines. Then using the same tip, but in very tiny circle movements, I shaded it all in. Then I went over it all with a very fine 800 grit sandpaper to smooth it out.

[Teresa Wiggins]

Oh, I ordered more stencils, because I want a trinity knot design on my bows.

Today, with hubby's help holding the psaltery, I painstakingly drilled all the holes. Then I glued on the rosette. Tomorrow I'll stain it.

[Jim McConkey]

Thanks for the pics!

[Teresa Wiggins]

I'm so disappointed in myself. I didn't get all the glue sanded off of the sides, so the stain isn't taking in those spots. I'll have to wait for the stain to cure and try to resand it. I hope all my pyrography doesn't get ruined, but I guess I can go over it if I have to.

[Jarno Verhoeven]

Maybe use a card scraper and scrape the glue away locally and stain that area? Don't give up yet!

[Teresa Wiggins]

Maybe use a card scraper and scrape the glue away locally and stain that area? Don't give up yet!

That's a fabulous idea! I just ordered the scraper, and I'll give it a try. Thanks so much!