M Ljin

There may be some confusion regarding what I am asking about—I am referring to taking a log from the forest to begin with, and ending up with a board, rather than cutting already-made boards. But I appreciate all the advice nevertheless.

Very good question!

My first thought is get as much food locally and with as little mediation as possible. Making your own clothing or using/reusing older clothes helps as well to avoid pollution from synthetic fibers, and so does using only natural fibers (not to mention they are better for you!)

People lived up until only a century or two ago without plastics. Surely we can find inspiration from them!

Reusing paper bags is another way. I find old paper bags very useful.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Results of some further refinement with pocket knife and sandpaper are below.

Oddly I found that birch bark seems to be a better sound board in this project than spruce! And it’s turning out to be more of a peculiar little fiddle than anything.

Here is the result.

I think it’s less a matter of hours or weeks, as how you feel if you sit down to try to play it or if you have the patience. If you sit down for as long as feels right and try to play, and you feel challenged in a good way, then that is wonderful—continue! You can even start off with a hard piece if you have the energy and patience to learn it. If it feels overwhelming instead, shelve it.

I think, and many good musicians would also say, finding your own style is very helpful. I can’t necessarily play an instrument like such and such musician I admire, but they maybe can’t play the way I can either! We all have different hands and different hearts and making a song your own is quite alright.

Many thanks to Anne for the suggestion of a coping saw! I am now sawing the one thick board into two fine boards where I thought it would not be possible to get more than one out of it. However I think that one of the Japanese saws might be better, though I don’t have one currently. It seems like to cut something more efficiently, a much longer blade would be necessary, especially if the board is wider than the coping saw is long (fortunately this is a little one). I am thinking that even a hacksaw could potentially work.

Do Good

Slow down and appreciate what’s right in front of you today
Do less than you’ve ever done before
It’s a privilege to be alive, to be you and me this time
Doin good doesn’t have to mean do more

Do a little, and be a little kinder to the ones who love you
Hear a little and see a little wisdom from beneath and above you
The treetops pullin sun making air for everyone
And the roots holding it down spreading love all around

So slow down and appreciate what’s right in front of you today
And do less than you’ve ever done before
It’s a privilege to be alive, to be you and me this time
Doin good doesn’t have to mean do more

I am considering getting into lutherie more, as I was looking at ukuleles today to get as a gift, and seeing that I probably have most of the skills to make one of better quality than many of the ones I saw, and would like to!—but not quite all. One of those points is that of being able to make boards from roundwood. As preparation I felled and have been sawing up a small, recently deceased red spruce tree from nearby. I used a maul and the result was a few thick, uneven boards. I don’t have a splitting axe, or a froe (but may be able to improvize the latter). Getting some of these tools may be a possibility.

Sawing into boards (especially thin ones) seems like it would be impractical with hand tools but maybe not?

Does anyone have practical advice for this sort of craft?

That is wonderful! It’s good that you can get started without too much extra expense, and nice of whoever decided to send you the instrument.

You can also, if you’d like to skip a different expense too, tune relatively by ear, by knowing which notes equal which other notes or which ones are an octave apart, bypassing the need for a tuner—but you wouldn’t know exactly what note it was.

Actually you could use this online tool for making a tone for reference too: https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

This method needs you to try to match the tone of whatever you are referencing whether it be another string or the tone generator. Or you could even tune to a song you know if you know the key of it.