Steve Selin and I are making three banjos this spring (one for me and two for him). We began the project with a beautiful piece of wood for the neck. It was given to Steve by a mutual friend years ago and comes from an old factory from around here. We cut it according to a template we created and found that there was a small whole from the beam where the headstock would be. We figured it might add character to the banjo, and decided that I would fill it when the time came. The first couple of days I was able to use the band saw for the first time along with helping Steve with the table saw. It felt good to get over my fear of electric saws.

After some research, I came up with a design for the headstock and traced it on to the wood. This week I made a dowel to fill my little whole and glued the ebony piece to the head. Steve and Richie recently made a trip out to Perry City to find the remnants of a banjo that had been through a studio fire soon after it was build. All that is left is the metal hardware beautifully warn by the fire. I will use this for my banjo and to get the same affect, we are going to put Steve's banjo hardware in the wood stove for a while.