Do It Yourself historical rope drum (III).

Today I´m bringing you the third part of my "Do It Yourself historical rope drum" project. You can check the first part HERE and the second one HERE.

This is how the drum looked like at the end of the second part:

©David Valdés

As I wanted to emulate historical designs, I had a very clear idea since the very beginning of this project: to decorate the shell with tacks, a normal procedure centuries ago (and a necessary one because, when bending the wood to form a cylinder, we get a join that needs to be reinforced for the shell to stay in shape. It was also a decorative element and, because of the different patterns, it was also used to identify makers). So, looking for inspiration, I searched in the iconography and surviving historical drums:

"The nightwatch" (Rembrandt)

"Boy with a drum" (Rembrandt)

American Civil War drum

American Civil War drum

 American Civil War drums belonging to William F. Ludwig II

British long drum (1714-1727). National Music Museum. Here you can see the seam where the shell overlaps over itself and how it is reinforced with tacks.

Bass drum by William Kilbourn (Albany, New York). 1864-1869. National Music Museum

Trying not to screw it up or irreversibly damaging the shell, I did some preliminary tests on a board:

©David Valdés

Once I was confident enough, I got a compass and gridded paper, where I draw several concentric circumferences (using the vent hole as the centre). I then marked their perimeters with equidistant points. Those points would be where I would hammer the tacks. Once I finished the template, I fixed it on the shell with masking tape (so as not to damage the finish), centering it on the vent hole and aligning the "north/south" diametral line with the seam of the outer layer of the shell, which is also the symmetric axis for the snare bed and the vent hole. This way, all the elements would be centered and symmetrical (even the snare strainer).

©David Valdés

I got some nice brass tacks to harmonize with the rest of the elements of the drum but, before starting with the hammering, I had to cut them, as they were longer than the thickness of the shell (and I didn´t want them to go through it). As I always do, once cut I hammered their tips so they don´t crack the wood.

©David Valdés

Using the template, the next job (very boring, by the way...) was marking the points were I would hammer the tacks.

©David Valdés

Once done, I removed the template, revealing the marks. With this preparatory job done, hammering the tacks was a piece of cake.

©David Valdés

So, there goes the first circumference (12 tacks):

©David Valdés

The second one (24 more tacks):

©David Valdés

The third one (36 more):

©David Valdés

And, finally, the fourth one (48 more):

©David Valdés

Once I finished the central "rosette", I considered attaching a brass grommet to the vent hole, but checking the iconography I saw it wasn´t a feature present in historical drums, so I got rid of it.

©David Valdés

I completed the design (using the template and technique already described) with four more "rosettes", this time using different tack sizes to make them look like flowers.

©David Valdés

And here we have, 172 tacks later, the whole thing finished:

©David Valdés

The next thing I did was attaching a snare strainer (an 18th century replica I got at Cooperman which I gold plated to match the other elements -the original piece was chromed-):

©David Valdés

Using my angle mat, I marked a diametrical point to that of the strainer...

©David Valdés

...so I could attach the butt bolt (also by Copperman, and also gold plated).

©David Valdés

Here you have a photo of the shell, counterhoops and heads ready to get roped (bare in mind those aren´t the heads actually on the drum, as they feature aluminium flesh hoops, which are not historical. The drum does now feature goat heads mounted on wooden flesh hoops).

©David Valdés

I´ll show you the complete drum in a future article. Do you like this kind of finish?, do you consider it historical enough? 😉

…et in Arcadia ego.

© David Valdés