My niece’s 3rd birthday was coming up and hearing about her recent interest in music I thought perhaps a small harp would make for a nice gift; I remember my children enjoying one when they were young. After a little shopping I decided that perhaps I would build one instead of buying something but before I knew it I found myself crafting an heirloom piece. Although I did not know it at the time, and keep calling it a Lyre, it seems I reinvented the Kinnor, the biblical “harp” described in the old testament.
In my workshop I had some nice poplar that my router partially chewed up working on another piece that I should be posting on here in the next couple weeks, but it was not enough for the whole build. I then remembered I had some lumber my father gave me before he passed away that I have been saving with no small amount of sentimental attachment. Sadly I have virtually nothing that was my father’s save a couple knick-knacks, his belt buckle, these last boards and a reel of tie-wire that I ration. I thought he would approve of using one of the boards for his granddaughter so I ripped one down along with the poplar and glued them up as a solid block for the body about 10″x24″. At this point I did not have a design in mind and figured this was all the wood for this project and I would just make something work!
I spent a bit of time sketching some concept art for the design until I hit on something I liked. I fleshed out the design in CAD (Fusion 360) to work through the dimensions and refine the shapes and curves to my liking.
The benefit of having a 3d rendering is that I was able to export several of the 2d traces to my laser cutter to cut out templates from thin plywood to help with the build. This is incredibly useful, especially when dealing with highly symmetrical pieces with a lot of organic curves.
Once the block was glued up, I ran it through the planer several times before rough cutting it from a trace on the bandsaw and attempting to route the instrument shape using a lasercut template and a pattern router bit; this failed disastrously as the cut was just too aggressive for the small router and large bit I was using. I adjusted the profile slightly to compensate for the tear outs, tightened up the cut on the bandsaw and simply drum sanded it to final shape without issue. The interior through-cuts were done using fostner bits and a table jigsaw while the cavity was cut using pattern bit and template with my larger router. I created several jigs to allow me to chamfer and drill the angled neck and then cleaned everything up with chisels. Since the grain was all in one direction I cut rabbits on the table saw across the back of the neck and either side of the body and then inlaid a perpendicular grain of poplar. I drilled all the appropriate holes, then patched any defects and sanded from 80 to 220.
Once the main body was finished I put the whole thing under the laser cutter to add some etched embellishments around the sound hole. I then used some of the scrap pieces to fashion the bridge and nut along with inlaid brass bar stock and glued them in place.
For the back panel I toyed with several designs before hitting upon an Aesop’s fairy tale that I had not heard of. It features a fox and a bird, the totems often ascribed to me and my dad and had a whimsical child-like quality that I thought would be fun. I found some imagery that I liked which I was able to adjust to fit the panel shape that I etched and cut using the laser to arrive at a perfect fit that I then glued up.
One bright morning as the Fox was following his sharp nose through the wood in search of a bite to eat, he saw a Crow on the limb of a tree overhead. This was by no means the first Crow the Fox had ever seen. What caught his attention this time and made him stop for a second look, was that the lucky Crow held a bit of cheese in her beak.
“No need to search any farther,” thought sly Master Fox. “Here is a dainty bite for my breakfast.”
Up he trotted to the foot of the tree in which the Crow was sitting, and looking up admiringly, he cried, “Good-morning, beautiful creature!”
The Crow, her head cocked on one side, watched the Fox suspiciously. But she kept her beak tightly closed on the cheese and did not return his greeting.
“What a charming creature she is!” said the Fox. “How her feathers shine! What a beautiful form and what splendid wings! Such a wonderful Bird should have a very lovely voice, since everything else about her is so perfect. Could she sing just one song, I know I should hail her Queen of Birds.”
Listening to these flattering words, the Crow forgot all her suspicion, and also her breakfast. She wanted very much to be called Queen of Birds.
So she opened her beak wide to utter her loudest caw, and down fell the cheese straight into the Fox’s open mouth.
“Thank you,” said Master Fox sweetly, as he walked off. “Though it is cracked, you have a voice sure enough. But where are your wits?”
Moral : The flatterer lives at the expense of those who will listen to him.
I tested several finishes before settling on a simple lacquer. I tend to fade when it comes to proper finish work, but I still managed to get probably 8 coats on with some gentle sanding between them. And here is how it came out!
Unexpectedly one the biggest challenges was getting it strung properly. I single handedly funded the guitar string making industry this year by the number of strings I purchased that I broke or couldn’t use! Once I recognized the specificity of string gauge to the desired frequency and that I would need to align my tuning desire to what was commercially available as a common set I was able to come up with something that worked. I ended up with a full octave plus one in a Major Pentatonic Scale that I found that I was able to get by using 7 of the 12 strings from a standard full set for a 12-string guitar.
| String | Note | String Gauge |
| 1 | D3 | 30 |
| 2 | E3 | 28 |
| 3 | G3 | 22 |
| 4 | A3 | 18 |
| 5 | B3 | 14 |
| 6 | D4 | 12 |
| 7 | E4 | 10 |
And here is what it sounds like!
I’m really very happy with how it came out, and just how incredibly resonant the body was. There is a little buzz the way I filed the brass that I would have liked to have addressed, but not bad for a first instrument. Let’s hope my niece doesn’t destroy it too quickly!
