Michael J King, Luthier

Hepworth Gallery, Wakefield

If you are passing near Wakefield, west Yorkshire then the Hepworth gallery is a great place to visit, a custom made modern building with contemporary art and a collection of the tools and work of Barbara Hepworth. I Studied stone carving while at University, immersing myself in the works of the early 20th century British Sculptors like Moore and Hepworth, Its been a long time since those days!

Photographed on the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows phone

(thanks to Nokia Conversations for the loan of this device)

After the Bowl carving course.......... tool making

I am readying some tools to thin out the soundbox of the harp I recently made, including a tool to get into the end grain at the top end of the harp and another to slice wood off the inside edge, Its more tricky working this way but the rewards will be a richer and more balanced instrument.

I made an extra long Olive Ash handle after the ones Robin Wood uses for my Bent blade,

This tool is used two handed and slices across the grain. Most effective on green wood!

Alongside this is another tool, a commercially available hooked knife by Mora. Still a few more tools needed to do the work I need to do. Updates in a few weeks!

Day Three on Robin Woods Bowl carving course

Day Three was the consolidation of the other two days work, I didn't finish my second bowl but roughed it out to finish it later at home.

In this picture you can see the Hans Karlsson bent gouge, adze

and the Gransfor Axe I used. The very best kit and razor sharp.

This chisel is one I am looking into getting for my harp making

Martin Hazell demonstrating one of the north American Indian Style Adzes by the Kestral company

This lightweight adze balances perfectly in the hand and makes less tiresome work

Kestral adze side view

Rough profile of double headed bowl

Some of the bowls made by the students on the course

My completed bowl

Robin's bowl carving course teaches you all the hand skills for splitting, cutting, hollowing and shaping

and the safe ways to do this and much more. For beginners to this way of working the Spoon carving courses are a really good way to start on a smaller scale.

I had a really enjoyable time in good company and in a fantastic location, just need sometime to unpack what I have learnt and how to use it. I now have a bent knife blade from Robin that I am making a handle for and using for a harp re-voicing in a few weeks so I will blog again when I do that!

Day 3 blog course summery taken outside Edale Village hall on the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows phone(thanks to Nokia Conversations for the loan of this device)

Day Two on Robin Woods Bowl Carving Course

The second day was half spent finishing the willow bowl from the day before. We were taught different safe ways to use the Mora carving knives and two different strokes, One, the reverse hold I had not used before.

First bowl rough shaped, ready for push spokeshave and nordic knife whittling

Robin Wood demonstrating how to safely axe out a bowl blank.

I chose Lime for my second bowl which was a joy to split and work!

Day 2 blog taken in my tent on the Nokia Lumia 920 Windows phone(thanks to Nokia Conversations for the loan of this device)

Stick Dulcimer Making Theme tune Tutorial and Tabs!

As promised here is the video tutorial(and Tabs) for the Stick Dulcimer Making Course Theme!
I am playing this on one of my new simple plain mahogany Stick Dulcimers(available for sale)

If you need a Tab sheet to print out please go to my Stick Dulcimer music page on my website where you can download this tab and the morrowind tabs
http://www.michaeljking.com/stick_dul...
Note: There was an error in the strumming section where I missed two notes but I corrected the tabs.

This video was filmed all on a Nokia Lumia 920 Windowsphone and edited on Openshot on Lubuntu Linux.

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Day one on Robin Woods Bowl Carving course

This is something I wish I'd done 10 or 20 years ago, Learning how to carve wooden bowls from green timber using nothing but very sharp traditional hand tools. Even though I trained as a cabinet maker my skill set was mostly modern hand tools and small power tools and apart from whittling there was a gap in my knowledge working fresh green timber. If you are thinking of starting out yourself then the Spoon carving course is an ideal introduction with minimal outlay. I was interested in bowl carving specifically as I am branching out into carving out Harps, lyres and Nyckelharpa from logs that are green so I can get a clean smooth interior( cutting into 4" deep kiln dried timbers, and especially the end grain is very hard without using a lot of machine work and sanding)
Robins Woods Bowl Carving course is over three days in the Village of Edale in the Peak District. One of the locations of the recent BBC TV series "the Village" I was camping a short walk away.