Monthly Archives: April 2015

Scott Nicoll, Daniel Gough and Robbie Ferguson with their completed banjos.

Easter 2015 Workshop at Forfar Academy

The first Banjoworks workshop ran during the school Easter holidays, over nine days.

  • Three S1 pupils (twelve years of age) and one former pupil attended.
  • Two of the pupils, Daniel Gough and Robbie Ferguson, built their banjos, start to finish in the nine days.
  • One pupil, Scott Nicoll could only attend during the five days of the second week.  He was provided with a partially formed neck, which allowed him to complete the remainder of the instrument within the time he had available.
  • The former pupil, Blair Robertson, attended during the first week.  Unfortunately, his employer altered his work schedule for the second week and he was therefore unable to attend to complete his banjo.  The partly completed components have been stored, in case he has the opportunity to attend a future workshop, to complete his banjo.
  • Faculty leader Bob Baldie was available throughout, and helped Robbie and Daniel prepare CAD drawings to laser cut their peg head inlays.

Links to Photos



Daniel Gough's Banjo

Daniel Gough’s Banjo

Daniel completed his banjo over nine days during the school Easter holidays, 2015.

  • Daniel made a great job of the instrument.  It plays well and feels good to hold.
  • The neck is built from layers of hardwood, including poplar and meranti.
  • The peg head has a meranti veneer with a poplar inlay.  He laser cut a skull motif inlay for it.
  • The rim /pot was brick-built from various hardwoods and turned on the wood lathe.
  • Daniel chose to stain the calf skin with coffee, to achieve a deep brown colour.

Scott Nicoll's Banjo

Scott Nicoll’s Banjo

Scott completed his banjo over five days during the school Easter holidays, 2015.

  • Scott was unable to attend the first week of the workshop.  To ensure that he’d be able to complete an instrument, he was provided with a partly formed neck.
  • Scott made a great job of the instrument.  It plays well and feels good to hold.
  • The neck is built from layers of pine, with a walnut finger board.
  • The rim /pot was brick-built from various hardwoods and turned on the wood lathe.
  • Scott chose to stain the calf skin with coffee, to achieve a deep brown colour.

Robbie Ferguson's Banjo

Robbie Ferguson’s Banjo

Robbie completed his banjo over nine days during the school Easter holidays, 2015.

  • Robbie made a great job of the instrument.  It plays well and feels good to hold.
  • The neck is built from layers of hardwood; oak and various tropical species.
  • He chose to fit a slotted peg head with a poplar veneer.  He laser cut a stag head inlay for it.
  • The rim /pot was brick-built from various hardwoods and turned on the wood lathe.
  • Robbie chose to stain the calf skin with coffee, to achieve a deep brown colour.

Instrument Stand Components Being Laser Cut

Laser Cutting an Instrument Stand

Yesterday I used the opens source programme ‘Inkscape’ to produce a CAD drawing of the instrument stand, and took the file to Forfar Academy.  The file was converted for use with one of the department’s laser cutters.  The stand’s components were then cut from a sheet of 4mm birch plywood.

This production method will be so much faster than cutting the plywood at the band saw, during the Easter holiday banjo construction workshop.