Wondering if anyone had any thoughts on a simple (small) musical instrument that could be forged? Not really sure what I'm looking for but any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks!

some of the wood wind family would be easy.....The flut is basicly a series of finger holes, an oval shaped ohle on one end(that is capped off). That may be something cool. A lot of your other instruments have valves, reeds, mouth pieces, pads, etc.

There are a lot of percussion items too....the triangle, symbol, cow bell (worked for Blue Oyster Cult "Don't frea the reaper"...)

There is also a weird thing called a sistrum(not sur eof spelling. It looks sort of like a tennis racket with things in it that rattle. Used mostly for rituals. Pretty old instrument if I remember correctly. You would have to check it though.

I have thought it would be fun to forge our a big Kazoo...by big I mean about 8 times the actual size, and make it workable with an air hose attachment. That is in the pile with my big mouse trap and every other small item I think would be cool made out of steel a lot bigger.

Good luck with it.
Peyton

you could make a set of bells or some triangles with scaled tones, i've also seen iron bass (large metal box with a neck and strings attached).

I think that a jew's harp / jaw harp would be an interesting project.

Jew's_harp.jpg

Might take a little experimentation to figure out, but they can't be all that hard to make.

Don

Chimes might be nice to make, you could use some high carbon to get a brighter tone.

saw a guy do a demo of a mouth harp here is a picture of the finished harp

Hanging chimes, from hollow section suspended from a forged frame, can be tuned by altering length, and struck with a forged striker.

Many years ago I made some handchimes for a group at my daughters school, all they consisted of was a piece of 1" square thin wall (Speed frame)tube, of varying lengths, which they held with one or two hands,

a 1/8" wide slot was cut in through opposite sides which vibrated to give resonance when struck with a rubber covered striker, the length of the slot giving the note's frequency

the striker was attached to the body of the tube by a rubber band so that when the tube was raised or lowered rapidly (once) the rubber struck the (not split) side and a note was emitted

Google "handchimes" and there are pictures and links to you tube videos of them being used.

With the references to jew's harps and kazoos and being an old Jean Shepard fan I can almost hear a chorus of when the Saints Come Marching In playing in the background.

I'd agree that a good jew's harp cold be forged.

Excelsior,
Ted

how about a harp. I have seen banjo's made from a metal box (cake tin). Then there is the ever popular pipe organ

This is beyond the scope of blacksmithing but it is too cool

IIRC Jr Strasil mentioned a piano with tone makers made from driveshafts.

Bells

Cymbals

Steel drum / pan

Gong

Chimes

Xylophone

Flute

Whistle

check out the hang drums on utube. there made from old propanne tanks

In front of the house I am renting there is a gong made from old oxygen tank with the bottom cut off and an eye welded to the top so it can hang from a little structure made of header beams.

African finger piano, some are very beautiful.

African thumb harps are fun little instruments.

The mouth harp is cool. How is the piece that is twanged affixed to the harp?
Thanks,
B

Next door at anvilfire is a demo/blueprint of a Treble Cleaf (we NEED 'spell-check here! ) I have made these and the really cool thing is that no matter where you strike the 'bell' you get a different note. I made one for a lady a few years back and played a real song on it before I handed it to her. She was real impressed...kinda suprised myself too :rolleyes: