Mujitsu and Tairaku's Shakuhachi BBQ

HM-style Tuning Set:


If you've got the time, you can make your own. You need:

An old maple pool cue.

A bunch of 1/8 or 3/16 in dowels.

A decent digital dial caliper (General makes a very good plastic one for $30-40, and it's useful in many other applications. It will measure
in either inches or metric).

Access to a band saw.

You measure slices (1/8-1/4 in thick) of the pool cue with the caliper using metric increments, drill holes in the wider end (they'll all be slightly tapered by default), and glue pieces of dowel into each hole. Mark its diameter on each slice of cue with a fine Sharpie.

Since the larger diameter sections will not have to go into the bore very far, the dowels on these pieces need not be very long.

Detailed shakuhachi bore profiles can be found on the internet.

Here's one: Shakuhachi Bore Profiles

This one shows profiles for 1.3 shaku up to 2.4 shaku using simple line graphs where the vertical axis is inside diameter; horizontal axis
is distance from blowing end.

Here's the home page for the site: http://www.shaku8.com/makeshaku8/index.html With lots of other details.

It's in Japanese, but a bit of scrutiny will reveal all.

Finally, here's a note from Monty Levenson bearing on the info on the above-mentioned website: Monty Sez

Piece of cake...

eB

Last edited by edosan (2007-02-04 16:51:01)

Abrasive tape?

Are you referring to the abrasive paper sheets that have an adhesive on the back? Perhaps Home Depot (GAH!!) or similar. OR,

You can make your own by getting some double-stick carpet tape (the kind with the thin core, not the thick stuff), applying it to
the back side of the sandpaper, cutting it to size to go around a dowel of your choice, removing the tape backer, and sticking it
onto the dowel at one end. The adhesion will work better if you put a thin but smooth fiinish on the surface of the dowel. You should also
chamfer the dowel to get rid of the sharp edge at the end.

Or perhaps you were referring to a thin piece of very tough metal with a pattern of small holes punched in it to form a surface
that will serve as a great file. The stuff I've used is called 'Lizard Skin' and it comes with different size holes to vary the 'grit'.

Lizard Skin can be trimmed to size with good snips, then wrapped around a dowel at one end and fastened with very small
carpet or upholstery tacks. Works great, and should be available many hobby shops. Haven't yet been able to locate it online.

eB

Last edited by edosan (2007-02-04 23:09:38)